


Raise a Glass and Rise Up!

by BrightWingR5



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alchemy, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Lions are Familiars, Magic, Other, Science, klance is platonic, sort of canon, sort of not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-04-27 16:51:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14429985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightWingR5/pseuds/BrightWingR5
Summary: Too long have the Galra ruled the Galaxy.Too long have we suffered under their merciless, greedy hands. Watched as they enslaved our family and friends.Well, no more. Its's time for the coalition to rise up and take down the tyranny of the Galra once and for all.The lions call for their Paladins, but only 4 have been found.Where could the paladin of nature, the Green Lion, have gone?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So, basically, more along the lines of the lions becoming magical armor and the Paladins have powers based on an element.  
> Not sure about if I'll include couples just yet. If I do, I'll most likely focus on Plance because they are my favorite pairing.  
> Also, if you are uncomfortable with the tags, rest assured it will not be very explicit. I will place a warning as to when it happens in a chapter.  
> Anyway, hope you enjoy the prologue and be sure that chapter one is soon to follow.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Votron or Dreamworks

Earth is a quiet place,well as quiet as it can be considering the people who lived there. It was a world where magic and science went hand in hand and helped in their avdvancements. For years, everything was normal... And then the Galra Empire appeared.

Earthlings alike did their best to fight back, but they were nothing compared to the Galra. They were quickly overpowered.

The Galra Emperor, Zarkon, began taking every person that showed magical abilities, this was soon followed by every scientist, and taking them away. To where? Only God seemed to know that.

This would happen every year or so until that glorious day.

'Emperor Zarkon is dead!' Rang through out the streets. Everyone believed they were free until they heard who had defeated him.

Prince Lotor, Zarkon's exiled son.

While he wasn't exactly like his father, he kept the selection program going and this time, he took more people through out the years.

Hope seemed to be fading faster that a burned out lightbulb, but if you listened closely, you can hear some whispers. Whispers of five great lion spirit imbued with the forces of the elements that only a chosen few were born to wield.

Some put it off to a fable, a story mothers used to put their children to sleep, and then the alien princess arrived.


	2. The Lions, the Princess and the Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this new chapter and, don't worry, we will be getting to our favorite group of paladins soon. Well, most of them anyway ;)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Voltron: Legendary Defenders or Dreamworks

It was during the reign of Zarkon that rumors of a coalition began to circulate around the galaxy.

A coalition of what you might ask? It is a group of fighters, formed to fight against the Galra Empire during the height of Zarkon's rule. It was formed by the king of a planet located in the deepest parts of the galaxy: a planet known as Altea. The Altean king, Alfor, had once been friends with Zarkon until something came over his friend and turned him into a the monster emperor. 

Now, however, Alfor sits among the high council of Altea, surrounded by other royal members, sages, alchemists and scientists, discussing the latest turn in the empire.

"The fact that Lotor is now emperor does not sit well with the coalition." A gruff voice said, his accent thick and echoing in the council room. "He still continues that damn program his father started and even more people have been forced from their homes and family." 

"It's become even worse on outlining planets." Said a tall, green skinned alien woman, who looked like a preying mantis, spoke up. Reaching out in front of her, she pulled up a holographic display of the systems she was explaining. Those captured by the Galra were colored purple, while those taken back by the coalition were colored a light blue. "Our best scouts have reported that more than 20 new planets and systems have fallen to the Galra. New prisoners of war have been collected and dispersed throughout their outposts, many others have already lost their lives." An audible sigh could be heard around the room as they watched more purple appear on the screen than blue.

This sigh was followed by a long pause as a feeling a sorrow filled the room. What could they do now? It seemed that for every planet or system they saved, another was swiftly captured by the Galra. How could a small group of fighters ever hope to take down such a vast power? Alfor knew that time was running out and now that Lotor was emperor, he could only guess what would happen next. Lotor was a quiet man, but he was tactful and studied his enemies every move, often knowing them before they did. He wasn't pampered and he sure as hell wasn't stupid. 

"The only thing we can do right now is continue on," Alfor said, his hand running over his short white beard, a stark contrast to his tan skin and ice blue eyes. "If we give up then all hope is lost for the future."

"But, what if Lotor is not his father?" One of the Altean councilmen spoke up, his white and yellow robes draping over his tan hand as he raised them. "For all we know, he could be stopping whatever madness his father started. He could become someone we could follow and see as a true emperor." A scoff was heard and attention was brought back to the man who had spoken earlier.

"Or he could be exactly like or even worse than his father. Either way, he has an entire army backing him and an abundancy of resources at his fingertips. What do we have?" This worried Alfor, only because the man had a point. While they had several star systems as allies, it was nothing compared to the Galra. If they were launch an attack now, it would not end in their favor.

"Then what do you suggest Entero? Since you seem to have such an opinion about all of this." The mantis like alien woman spoke up, irritation evident in her voice and gold eyes.

"I shall tell you, Anera, we disband this coalition." The man, Entero, said. "We all want the same thing, but we aren't getting any farther then we were before. If they try to take over our planets, then we fight on our own terms. At least we will die as heroes in our own homes." Alfor couldn't believe what he was hearing. 

Disband the coalition? After all they have been through and all they had done? There were people, all different races, counting on them to keep them safe, and now to even think about ending it all? It wasn't even fathomable in his mind.

A sorrowful, yet thoughtful silence filled the air as everyone seemed to be contemplating such an idea. They had put a lot into this group, but many of them were running low on resources, such as food, money and soldiers to fight. If anything, they were also running low on patience. Patience for this never ending war and loss of so many lives.

"There is one thing, one last line of hope." A gentle, yet firm voice broke the sorrowful air around them. The members turned their head to the head of table, where a young woman stood next to King Alfor. She bore the same tan skin, white hair and blue eyes as Alfor, though many agreed that she got her beauty from her mother and not her father. 

"And, pray tell, what would that be, Princess Allura?" Entero asked as he turned his black eyes on her. Allura simply ignored the rude man as she continued.

"We find those chosen by the lions," She explained. "And form the legendary defender, Voltron." Entero gave a hearty laugh.

"The legendary defender hasn't been summoned in years! Not since the last group of paladins failed to close the rift that caused all of this."

"I disagree with you, Lord Entero." A robed and hooded figure stood next to Allura as she walked into the room, a giant tome tucked under her arm. If you looked under the hood, you would see that she was Altean, with her tan skin, though she had dark blue hair instead of white, and purple eyes instead of blue. Like all Alteans, she bore marks under eyes, which were also a lighter shade of purple.

"Do you, Sage Anra?"

"Yes." Anra said as she placed the tome on the round table. "The other four sages, as well as myself, have been watching the lions temples since their slumber began, however, they have begun to awaken." She pulled up a picture of what looked to be temples made of rocks, tree vines, water and fire, all showing glowing runes around them. "No doubt the lions have already called to those who bear their marks. Voltron is ready to be used again, all you need do is find its chosen paladins."

"But, we already looked through out the galaxy for new paladins." Said Anera. "No one bares any of the runes matching any of the lions."

"You weren't looking far enough." Allura said as she swiped across the hologram. She kept moving the screen until she reached a small solar system and pointed out one of the smaller planets, a little thing covered in water and earth. "This is where we will find out new paladins: Earth."

"Earth? You mean Terra? That tiny planet? Princess, I don't mean to belittle this decision, but I have been to Terra and, let me tell you, none of their people fit the description of a Paladin of Voltron." Anera said as she stared at the picture before her.

"While that may be true, we won't know who until we get there and see for ourselves." Allura replied back, hoping to ease the council. She wasn't going to budge on her decision, after all, it is their last hope of defeating the Galra once and for all. 

"And how do you plan to find these chosen paladins?" Asked Entero, his voice thick with mockery. "It's not very polite to just go up to someone and ask to see if they have some kind of rune on their body. Terrans are known to be very conservative." 

Allura looked to Anra, who in turn, placed her hands out in front of her. She closed her eyes and began to mutter something under her breath. A small ball of light began to form in her hands and proceeded to get larger the longer she spoke. Many had to avert their eyes as the ball of light exploded and flooded the hall with its radiance. When it faded, the occupants of the room looked at what seemed to be different pieces of jewelry and different types of weapons, ranging from a sword to a small grappling hook.

"What are these?" A councilmen said as he reached for an earring with a green stone inside the cuff piercing. However, a small force field seemed to pop up and, as if he had just touched an open flame, reared back into his seat.

"These" Anra began. "are the sacred weapons and contractors of the paladins. Each was specifically made for the paladins by the lion themselves and only they can use them. If the weapon and jewelry allow the person to touch and wear it, then they are the ones chosen by the lions. We will take these with us to Earth and go from there." Alfor raised a white eyebrow as Anra finished her explanation.

"We?" He questioned as he looked at his daughter, concern evident in his eyes. Allura turned to her father, knowing that there was no dodging the question.

"I will go with Anra and find the paladins." She saw her father's drop at the answer to his question.

"Allura, you can't be serious. You on your own on a strange planet?"

"I know it's a strange concept, Father, but it is something only I can do. I can teach the paladins all they need to know, while you stay here and run the coalition. Besides, I will not be alone." Again, Alfor raised a brow at what his daughter said.

"You won't?"

"Of course not, Your Majesty!" Oh no... Alfor looked behind himself at the entrance of meeting hall and was met with his orange haired, mustached friend/advisor, Coran.

"Coran, you'll be going with Allura to Earth?" He asked, a little apprehensive at his daughter's choice in traveling companions. Anra was okay, as she can handle herself in battle, but Coran... well he was about as helpful in physical combat as child with a toy bow and arrow.

"I don't see why not." Coran said as he stepped in front of the king. "I've taken care of Allura since the day she was born, so it only seems natural that I accompany her on this mission. Plus, it gives me a chance to use my disguise kits." Both Allura and her father felt their faces drop at that. 

"Well, I suppose Coran is better than nothing." Alfor said as he stood from his chair. "In that case, I proposition we move forward with Allura's plan. If the lions have felt the need for new paladins, then we must heed their call. All of those in favor speak now." The room was silent for only a moment until Anera stood up.

"I second the mission. Let's show those Galra not to count out the coalition just yet." Allura smiled when after Anera, more of the council began to rise from their seats. Everyone stood at attention, all except...

"Entero," Alfor said. "do you stand with the mission or no?" Entero was silent for a moment, his mind contemplating the idea back and forth, until, with another sigh and crossed arms, he rose from his chair.

"Let's hope your last ditch effort is enough to save us, Princess." He said. "I'll also agree to this mission." And with that the motion moved forward and the meeting ended. As the rest of the council began leaving the room, Alfor and Allura stayed behind to have their own conversation.

"Allura, are you sure about this?" Alfor asked. "You'll be going into Galra occupied territory. If they find you, they will not hesitate to strike you down."

"Father, I know the dangers that come with this task, but I' am more than ready to take this on. I want to do my part in this war and, hopefully, bring it to an end. I've seen what the Galra have done to the places they conquer, to the people they conquer. No one deserves a life of slavery doing whatever the Galra have them doing in those camps. I can't sit by idly by anymore." Alfor knew his daughter spoke the truth. 

He had tried to keep Allura as informed on the war as he could, but there were somethings he didn't want her to know. He had been keeping an eye on what the Galra were doing with all the mages, alchemists and scientists they had acquired. Being an alchemist himself, he knew that it must be something to do with whatever had driven Zarkon mad. Whatever it was, he didn't want Allura getting mixed up in it. Now, however, it was a different story. She wanted to be apart of this battle, of freeing the numerous people enslaved by the Galra. She wanted to be a leader in this battle.

Alfor smiled and placed his hands on his daughters' shoulder.

"If you feel you must, then you must. All I ask is that you stay safe and place your trust in the right people." Allura gave her father a smile and embraced him, arms looping around his neck, as he returned it. "I love you Allura and may the gods watch over you on your journey."

"I love you too Father." She pulled back from the embrace to face him. "The next time you see me, I shall have the new paladins ready to fight alongside us."

"I know you will." And with that, Allura ran off to begin preparing for the journey ahead.

'She growing up again.' Alfor thought to himself. 'She will make a fine ruler someday. Now, we prepare to go to battle.'

He didn't know what would come of forming this new team of paladins, but if it meant new hope to the coalitions' cause, then all he could hope for is the best.

Whatever that hope may be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks and please feel free to leave a comment and a like if you want.


	3. Finding a Paladin in a Haystack

After the decision to move forward with the mission, Allura, Anra and Coran traveled to the planet Arus, where they boarded the vast castle ship, known as the Castle of Lions. It had been made to be a mobile home of sorts for the paladins to travel and rest in during the missions. However, the castle hasn't been used in many years, not since the last paladins had tried to take down Zarkon. Now it sits on the planet as a secret hideout, for who would suspect the Arusians to hold any kind of rebellion.

"This ship is quite amazing." Anra said as she moved about the bridge of the ship. The bridge of the ship was truly something to awe at, with it's crystal clear ceiling, wide area filled with Altean technology and the center console which ran on Altean energy itself. It was truly a brilliant piece of Altean technology. Now they just had to hope they can get the ship out of the ground its been stuck in.

"My father told me it was built for the sole purpose of housing the Paladins of Voltron when they were sent on missions. Though that's pretty much all he would tell me about it." Allura said as she stood in the center console, two small columns coming out of the floor to meet her. "Coran are we ready to fire up the ship?"

"Almost." Coran replied as he ran his hands over the holographic control panels. "Just a few more doboshes and we should be ready to go."

"Anra, are you sure you want to come along?" Allura asked as she looked at the young sage. "I mean, this will be your first time leaving Altea's system and well, being on a space ship."

Anra smiled at the princess as she took a seat on one of the cozy command chairs.

"Don't worry about me Princess Allura." She said as she strapped herself in. "This maybe my first time traveling outside of Altea's system, but it will never compare to when I took my exam to become a sage. I can remember not being able to hold anything down for a few quintants before and after finding out my results."

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you." Allura said as she placed her hands on top of the columns. 

"Ready when you are, Princess!" Coran said as he readied himself for the impending take off.

Allura nodded and then, closing her eyes, began focusing her energy into the ship's system. After a few ticks, the castles systems began roaring back to life and the earth around the rockets began to fall away as it ascended. Coran planted his feet into the floor of the ship as he held on for dear life. Why he didn't find a chair to sit in was currently flashing through his head. Anra, while looking calm on the outside, could feel her insides being pushed into her feet. She knew what it felt like to leave a planets atmosphere, they had to do it when they left Altea. However, that had been a much smaller spacecraft and was nothing compared to this large castle ship. How Allura was able to stay calm in this situation was beyond her.

After a few doboshes, the ship finally broke the planets atmosphere and they were looking at the vast open plane of space. The bright, blue light around Allura began to disappear and her eyes opened up.

"Coran," She began. "you put in the coordinates for Earth into the system, yes?" Her face dropped a little when she saw how crumpled Coran had become and was currently hanging onto the physical control panel. He gave a pained grunt as he pulled himself up off the floor.

"Yes, just give me a few ticks before we start up the teleduv." He gave a sigh as he regained his bearings and slowly began working the controls into order. 

Allura then looked to her right at Anra and saw that her own face had become slightly pale, her knuckles the same light shade. 

"Anra, are you alright?" Releasing her grip on the arms of the chair, Anra moved her head between her knees. She didn't emerge until a couple doboshes when the whole finally stopped shaking around and under her.

"I'am now." She said as she collapsed back into the chair. 

"Alright, the teleduv is ready to jump when you're ready, Princess." Coran said.

"Very well, set a course for the planet, Earth." Allura said as she started up the castle again. A wormhole soon appeared and the castle disappeared into it.

*Time Skip*

They had spent a little over one phoeb going from one place to the next, hoping that the paladin's instruments, would react and point them in the right direction. So far, the jewelry had only given subtle flashes and pulses here and there. After another unsuccessful day, the trio had retreated back to the castle. Upon learning that the Galra didn't keep a close eye on Earth as others, Coran had set the ship to orbit around the bright blue planet. Using a cloaking system, they had managed to stay off any radars, but they didn't know how long that would last them. 

"I don't know what else to do." Anra said as she read through the large tome she carried with her. "We checked all the places the paladins would be attracted to. According to this tome, the paladins are attracted to the element associated with their lion. The blue should be by water, the yellow by earth, red to fire and so on. Yet, each place hasn't even gotten us a strong reading." She closed her eyes, feeling a headache coming over her as she read the passages in the book. What could they possibly be missing? The problem with Earth was that the elements were everywhere. Earth mixed with water, nature with earth and so on that it made it impossible to just map out on exclusive area. Looking over the hologram of Earth, Allura noticed a building located way off in the desert. Enlarging the picture, she saw that it was called 'The Garrison'. It was a large building with several small branches and seemed to be the one place they haven't gone to yet.

"There's one place we haven't gone to yet." Allura said as she pulled up the picture of the Garrison.

"But, Princess, we've already been to the desert." Coran said and he didn't particularly want to go back to it. It was beyond hot during the day and when it got darker, it was way too cold for anyone to enjoy.

"No Coran, I want to go here, to this place called The Garrison." Coran gave the image a look over and then, using a tablet, put in information about this 'Garrison'. He found that the building was a boarding school of sorts that specialized in preparing young men and women for space travel as well as magical and scientific pursuits. Seeing that this was a government created program, it wouldn't be easy to get into. Knowing the way Earthlings seem to feel about strangers, they wouldn't just let them in without a good reason.

"I can say I've come to the planet to teach these young students about Alteans and our culture. It would be a first in actually making peace with the planet and freeing them under the Galra's control." Allura said, trying to convince Coran to let her go. Coran placed a hand under his chin, his orange mustache grazing his gloved hand. He knew this would be a great opportunity. Even if they didn't find the paladins, it would still be a good way to convince them to break away from the Galra Empire. To start a revolution...

"Alright, I'll see what I can do to convince them, but I'll be going with you this time. Someone has to make sure those teenaged Earth boys keep their hands to themselves." Allura laughed at this, but thanked the man anyway.

This had to be the place. This had to be where the paladins were located, otherwise they would be back square one.

Thankfully, Coran had been able to get permission from the Garrison to come to the school and give a little speech about their culture. Allura felt her spirit rise a little when they were allowed into the building and she could see the hoards of young adults milling about. One of these students had to be who they were looking for.

"As you can see, our school only allows the finest in. Everyone here has scored well above the average test scores and each specializes in different forms of space travel." A man named Iverson began going on about what they students could do, ranging from cargo and fighter pilot to engineers and robotics. "A side note is that if a student is proficient in either magic or alchemy, we also have classes they can take. We only strive for the best in the future of space exploration." He finished as they came to a rather large auditorium. He explained that she would do her speech here and that only their top students would be in attendance.

"I'm not speaking right now am I?" Allura asked as she looked at the large room.

"No, we're currently between periods, so you have a break before they start coming in. Feel free to move about the campus if you like." Iverson then gave a salute and walked out of the auditorium. Once he was gone, Allura turned to the bag over her hip and Coran giving her a strange look.

"Princess, is everything alright?" He watched as she rummaged through the small bag and then pulled out two of the paladin's instruments: the blue stoned arm band of the blue paladin and the yellow stoned circlet of the yellow paladin. Both were lighting up and vibrating. Allura looked to Coran and it only took a tick before he realized what it meant.

"Two of the paladins are here." Allura said as she moved to grab the instruments. "I told you they would be here. Now I just have to find them."

*MEANWHILE*

"I swear Hunk, Iverson has it in for me!" a young cadet said as he and another cadet walked down the halls of the Garrison. The other cadet, known as Hunk, gave a sigh as he walked beside his friend.

"Lance, Iverson doesn't have it out for you." Hunk said. "You were the one who decided to take our flight simulator today and try to pull some move to impress our class."

"First of all, I wasn't trying to be cool, it just comes naturally." Lance said. "Second, how would you even know that? You had your head in the engine, vomiting, which also got us in trouble."

"Well, if you hadn't of pulled that move, I wouldn't have done that." Lance could feel his ears turning red as Hunk continued. 

"Well, if you hadn't-" Lance stopped mid sentence when he saw her. A tall, beautiful, young woman with snow white hair, pretty blue eyes dressed like something out of a fantasy game he played last night. Hunk looked to where Lance's eyes had been drawn and immediately his face fall. If there was one thing Lance loved more than showing off, it was a pretty girl... or anything with a pulse for that matter. Yes, Hunk had to admit that she was beautiful, but he really needed Lance to focus on not getting Iverson mad at them for any other reason. However, when he looked back he could already see Lance making his way to the young woman. Seeing no other choice, he went after his lovestruck friend.

Lance just reached the stage of the auditorium when he saw the beautiful woman trip over her long dress and off the front of the stage. Thinking on the fly, Lance used his freezing magic to create a icy top coat over the recently cleaned floors. He skitted across the ice and easily caught her in his arms. She lifted her head and Lance could clearly see her shimmering eyes up close. He instantly felt his face grow hot.

"Well hello there." He said as his lips curled into a smoulder. 

"Thank you for catching me." She said as they straightened to stand up. He offered his hand to help her up as she pat the dust off her dress, completely uneffected by his attempt at flirting. Lance then noticed that she had pointed ears like some kind of elf from Middle Earth and Allura noticed Lance's as well.

"Your ears," She started. Lance suddenly became aware of her talking and what she had brought up.

"Yeah? What about them?"

"They're hideous. Why do all Earthings have such awful looking ears?" She said as she grabbed at one of his. Suddenly, she wasn't so appealing to Lance.

Hunk caught up to Lance and, upon seeing the two beginning some kind of fight, tried to back up until he saw something on the floor. It circular and looked to be made out of gold, or something close to gold, and had a medium sized yellow stone in the middle of it. He suddenly felt a pulling sensation, not like someone pulling him physically, but more of the sensation of being pulled towards something. In this case, it was this golden crown on the floor. 

"Hey, Miss, is this you-" And just as he picked it up, the yellow stone flashed, almost blinding him in the process. When the flashing settled, Hunk locked eyes with the strange woman, who he figured was some species of alien, and, almost wordlessly, he placed the crown on his forehead. Once it settled, Hunk felt some sort of burning in his neck. He reached a hand up and noticed that it felt like some sort of shape had been burned into his skin. It stung for a little bit, but the pain was quick and soon faded away. When he looked back at the woman, she had a very happy look on her face.

"Oh I can't believe it!" She shouted as she reached down and picked up a silver armband. As she held it in her hands, the armband did the same as the circlet and, after it had settled, looked to Lance with an excited expression. "If I'm right, this armband should do the same to you as the circlet did to your friend." Lance looked at the armband and then to the happy woman in front of him. Not wanting to disappoint her, Lance grabbed the armband from her and pulled his uniform shirt sleeve off his left arm. Muttering some Spanish under his breath, Lance opened the armband at its hinges and then placed it a little under where his arm and shoulder met. Almost instantly, Lance felt a slight burning sensation on his shoulder. Looking over he saw a strange symbol had been burned it his skin and, having never seen this shape in any of his alchemy textbooks, wasn't sure what it meant. Both boys then looked to the young woman who had begun shaking, either from excitement or nervousness, they weren't exactly sure.

"Oh this is wonderful!" She exclaimed as she wrapped both boys in a hug. "You don't know how much this means to me! To the universe! Finally, we have the first two paladins!" To say Hunk and Lance were confused was a big understatement. What exactly was this alien lady talking about? What the heck was a paladin? Why was it so important to the universe? "I know this sounds confusing and you must have a lot of question."

"That's putting it mildly." Hunk said as he felt the right side of his neck. He could feel where the burn had but across his skin and boy, did it feel weird.

"But, I'll shall answer questions you have tonight. Meet on the roof of the Garrison and I'll explain everything." With that, she lifted the hem of her skirt and, gesturing to the orange haired man with her, ran out of the auditorium. Lance and Hunk took this moment to look at each other with wide eyed expression, each staring at the new piece of jewelry on their bodies.

"What did we just get ourselves into?" Lance said as he stared at the silver armband.

What have you done, indeed.


	4. Your Mission... Should You Choose to Accept

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!
> 
> So I meant to upload this on Tuesday because that was the schedule I've been trying to keep for this. However, I went and saw 'Avengers: Infinity War' and it fucked with my brain. Anyone who has seen it knows what I'm taking about. Marvel has changed for me after that movie.
> 
> Also, Pidge won't show up for a couple more chapters, as I've been trying to work what I want to fit in well to the Voltron universe. Hopefully, you're enjoying what I've put out so far and thanks for reading!
> 
> Enjoy this chapter!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Voltron: Legendary Defender or Dreamworks

After their strange meeting with the alien woman, Hunk and Lance were left with a lot of questions buzzing around in their heads. However, they didn't have much time to think them over now.

After she had disappeared, Iverson had walked back in and demanded what they were doing here instead of in their respective classes. Not wanting to make their Garrison days any more troublesome, Hunk saluted the Commander and pulled Lance away before he could say anything, both trying to hide the strange jewelry they were given.

_*TIME SKIP*_

"Who do you think she was?" Lance asked as he laid down on his bed. One good thing about the Garrison was that he got to share his room with Hunk, so that they could talk about what happened in private.

"Did you literally sleep through that whole presentation?” Hunk asked as he looked over his alchemy notes. “Her name is Allura, her assistant is Coran and she is the Princess of Altea.”

“No, I got all of that.” Lance said as he pulled himself into a sitting position, the silver armband shining in the fluorescents of their overhead lights. “I meant, what do you think she meant with all ‘paladin’ and ‘saving the universe’ stuff? I mean, sounds like something out of a comic book.”

“I want to know what these things she gave us do.” Hunk said as he fiddled with the circlet. He had somehow managed to remove it from his forehead, while Lance still had his attached to his arm. He had tried everything from pulling on it to freezing the hinges with his magic and still, the band refused to leave his arm.

“Yeah, do you know how weird it was to feel this thing under my uniform?” He said as he flexed his shoulder. “I mean, I don’t mind the cold, but when I forget it’s there, it wakes me up from my nap.”

“And you wonder why you’re failing most of your classes.” Hunk said as he set the circlet on his bed. “Though I think that’s for a whole different reason.”

“Yeah, what with the whole ‘reaping’ having just passed.” Lance sighed at the memory.

The reaping. A horrid thing that he had once read in a series of books, where young men and women were ripped from their families to be used as entertainment for privileged, desensitized citizens by killing each other until there was only one left.

What did that have to do with them?

Well, ever since the Galra had taken over, that story had become true. They weren’t used as entertainment or forced to kill each other, in fact, no one knew what those reaped were even being used for. All they knew was that every year or so, the Galra would come to the Garrison and take those who scored well in a series of tests put forth throughout the semesters. Those taken were divided by their classes: Scientist, Pilot, Mage and Alchemist. The Galran generals had said it was a badge of honor, but Lance could see what it really was.

A ploy by the Galra to keep Earths people from revolting as if they were saying, “You disobey or attack us, we can kill your loved one without mercy.” Well, it was working.

“I know you keep your grades low so that you can avoid it, but come on Lance, you’re wasting your potential. Your magic is strong, you’re pretty smart, the only thing you need to work on is your piloting skills, but other than that, you could be a top student.” Hunk had always seen potential in his friend, but his fear of being reaped seemed to outweigh any academic potential.

“Yeah, yeah, I know! Damn, you’re starting to sound every professor I’ve had!” Lance said as he once again tried to pull the silver band from his arm. He gave an exasperated sigh as it refused to let go. “I always dreamed of coming here and then the damn Galra show up and turn the Garrison into some kind of slave farm!” Lance’s voice began to go higher with his anger and frustration. Frustration from Hunk’s questions and trying to get this armband off, anger from the situation he placed himself in when his application was accepted and just how fucking annoying this thing was becoming.

If it would just let go!

However, it was just as he could feel the hinges giving way, that he stopped. The metal had suddenly become very cold, almost like ice, and Lance soon found himself in darkness. He looked around him, trying to find his bed in the blackness, but he only found nothing. He thought that maybe he had hit his head on the wall and was simply in a dream until he heard a roar behind him. He turned around again and found what looked to be… a lion? Though it didn’t look like a regular lion.

It looked to be female, with its lack of a mane, but its fur was the deepest shade of blue he’d ever seen. What stuck out to Lance the most was the lion’s eyes. They were the icy and pupil less, seeming to stare right through him if he looked at her for too much.

“Uh, hey there, little lion-spirit-thing,” Lance started. “you’re a nice lion, right? You’re not going to hurt me?” He began tentatively taking small steps towards the creature, his left arm pointed towards the beast. Though he should feel scared, Lance felt at ease in front of the lion. It was like he knew that the creature wouldn’t hurt him, that he wasn’t a threat.

Just as he got close enough to touch her blue fur, the lion suddenly jumped forward, leaping towards him. He put his arms up to defend himself, waiting for the sharp claws and pointed fangs to pierce his skin, but he only felt a strong, burst of wind go right through him. He turned around to see the lion running away from him as a bright light appeared, blinding him in the process.

“ _Come find me_.” A voice calls out amidst the light. “Defeat the enemy behind the enemy and save your universe, Paladin of Voltron.” And then, BAM, the light was gone, but not before…

“ _Help me…_ ” Another voice, small and like the tinkling of a bell, followed.

Who was that?

“Lance! Lance, you okay, buddy?” Hunk yelled as he cradled Lance, shaking him to wake him up. Lance opened his eyes, jumping when he saw he was back in his dorm room and not that black oblivion. He took in a deep breath, one he didn’t know he was holding, and looked to Hunk.

“Dude, what happened?”

“You got frustrated trying to get that armband off and then BAM! A light appeared from it and the next thing I knew, you were passed out on the floor. What the heck happened to you?”

“I don’t really know.” Lance said as he wiped the back of his hand across his sweaty forehead. “I was in this black, nothingness when I saw this blue furred lion staring at me. It didn’t move or make any growls, it just sat there.” Hunk raised an eyebrow at what Lance told him.

“Okay, I think you hit your head a little too hard when you fell. It’s about time for lights outs, so let’s- “

“Let’s go meet that alien princess!” Lance jumped up from the ground and ran over to his closet. He pulled out his civilian clothes, a gray raglan shirt, some jeans, sneakers and his trusty hooded jacket.

“Wait, what?!” Hunk said as he watched Lance change. He couldn’t really be serious about meeting that strange alien princess. Did he believe what she told them?

“You said you wanted to know what these weird things are, right?” Lance then went over to Hunk’s closet and pulled out his civilian clothes as well. “Well, if you want to know then you’ll need to ask her in person.” Unfortunately for Hunk, that was true. He was genuinely intrigued by these strange things and, being an engineer and an alchemist, he wanted to know how they worked and what made them work. But, why did that mean he had to sneak out after curfew, possibly facing the wrath of Commander Iverson and then expulsion from the Garrison.

He should listen to that small voice in the back of his head, telling him that this was a BAD idea. However, …

“Lights out in five minutes! Everyone back to their dorms, now!” Iverson yelled as he walked down the corridors of dorms. Students began filing back to their rooms as the hall lights went out and everything went quiet. As Iverson walked back to the staff room, Lance and Hunk emerged from their hiding spots, why Lance chose trash cans Hunk will never know.

“Okay, for the record, this is a bad idea.” Hunk said as he tried to shimmy out of the trash can, which resulted in him toppling over. Lance winced when he saw Hunk go down and make a small bang.

“Come on Hunk, I need to know what that vision meant and the only way to do that is to talk to that princess.” Lance said as he moved through the halls.

“I know, but it’s still a really, REALLY, bad idea.” Lance shushed him as they crouched underneath the window of the faculty room and crawled to the other end. “I just want that on that record.”

Lance gave a sigh as they walked towards the end of the corridor.

“You know, for someone in a space exploration program, you don’t have much of a sense of adventure.”

“That’s because all of your adventures end with us in the principle’s office. Oh man!” Hunk had to stop talking as a teacher came walking down the hall they were about to cross. Making sure they kept quiet, they waited as he looked around, making sure they weren’t any students out of bed.

“L-5 north all clear.” He said into his radio and then walked away. Lance and Hunk breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to the end of the corridor. They walked up a flight of stairs and soon found themselves on one of the flat roofs of the Garrison. They looked around, not seeing any sight of the beautiful, alien princess and her advisor, and Lance began to think that they had been late and that they had gone back to their ship.

“Oh well, looks like their gone.” Hunk said, relief evident in his voice. “What do you say we head back to our dorm and turn in for the night?” He began walking back to the door until,

“Please wait.” Hunk’s shoulders fell while Lance’s face lit up at the sight of the princess.

Allura straightened her dress as she stood before two of her paladins.

“Thank you so much for coming.” She said as she bowed to them. “As you heard before, my name is Princess Allura of the planet Altea. Although I’ am not here on a simple teaching mission.”

“Why are you here exactly?” Lance asked, his hand going immediately to the armband on his shoulder.

“I know that you and many others have suffered under the tyrannical rule of the Galra.” Allura said. “My father and I are the leaders of the coalition hoping to bring that rule down for good. That is where you two come in.” Hunk and Lance raised their eyes at what this woman was saying.

Why would an alien rebellion want their help? They were just average students with nothing particularly awe-inspiring about them. Sure, Lance was a pretty good water mage and Hunk always received good marks on his alchemy projects, but that was it. Other than that, they were ordinary.

“Could you explain that a little more?” Lance asked. “Like, why did you give us these strange pieces of jewelry and the strange vision it sent me?” That comment got Allura’s attention.

“Strange vision, you say?” She asked as she looked Lance in the eyes.

“Yeah, it was about some blue furred lion that went right through me when I tried to touch it!” Lance explained. “It went right through me, asked me to ‘Come find it’ and then disappeared. It was totally weird!” To Lance’s surprise, Allura simply smiled at him and placed her hands on his shoulders.

“That was simply your lion trying to reach out to you.” She said. “Which means that it’s somewhere on this planet.”

“Lion? You mean that thing is real?”

“Yes, and that’s where our mission begins.” Allura said as she placed her left hand on Lance’s shoulder and her right on Hunk’s. “You both are two in a group of five chosen warriors, blessed by the lion spirits of Voltron, the hopeful savior in this battle. Lance, you are the blue paladin, wielder of the element of water, and you, Hunk, are the yellow paladin, wielder of the element of earth.”

“Are you sure about that?” Hunk asked, an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. “I mean, I’m not really a fighter or a mage, and Lance is a fighter, but he doesn’t listen really well.”

“HEY!” Lance yelled at the slight dig from his friend.

“I mean, we’re talking about the fate of the known universe here and you want to entrust it to a couple of teenagers? Yeah, I’m not buying into it.”

“I know this is a lot to take in,” The orange, mustached man, Coran, if they remembered correctly, spoke up. “But, there is no fault in our story. The reactions from the Paladin’s Instruments and the appearance of those runes are enough proof that you are who were looking for. There are no others who can do this.” Now this certainly was a lot to take in, but to Lance, it was the most amazing thing he had ever heard.

A chance to fight against the Galra and bring them down? No way in hell was he going to miss this! However, what if the Galra found out who they were and went after their families? He could be putting all his brothers and sisters and his parents, as well as Hunk’s family, in danger. Could he do such a thing?

“I know this is crazy to put on both of you,” Allura said. “but, Voltron is the last hope the universe has if we are to bring down the Galra.” Allura then did the unthinkable for a royal: she got down on her knees and pleaded. “I implore you, please help us in this mission, Paladins.”

And now Hunk and Lance feel very distraught. They wanted the Galra gone more than anything, but to take on such a huge role? Were they completely sure they had the right people?

Hunk bent down and helped Allura to her feet.

“Look, we want to help, we really do, but this is- “

Before he could finish, Iverson’s voice came over the loud speakers around the campus, shortly followed by a siren that Hunk and Lance had heard many times.

“Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown. Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: all students are to remain in barracks until further notice.” And then Iverson ended the alert.

The small group wondered what could warrant locking down the entire school until they heard the rumbling in the sky. They looked up to dark sky and they could see the red and orange of something entering the atmosphere.

“What’s going on?” Hunk asked, his voice anxious and scared. “Is that a meteor? A very, very big meteor?”

“It’s a ship.” Allura said as she looked up.

“How can you tell?” Lance asked. “It’s too high up to see from here.”

“Alteans have excellent eyesight and hearing.” Coran explained, his gaze never leaving the ship. “We can see things clearly from very far distances as well as hear conversations in hushed tones. And I can concur that is a ship.”

“Holy cow! I can’t believe what I’m seeing!” Lance said as he stared at the ship, it’s full image now in full view. That’s when Lance’s face fell. “That’s not one of ours.”

“No,” Coran said. “It’s one of the Galra.” Hunk could feel his stomach drop at the mention that the ship belonged to the Galra. The ship landed into the group with a resounding crash, the fire around it having been extinguished the second it hit the ground.

“Wait, that’s a Galra ship?” He asked. “But, they already gathered the yearly group.” That caught Allura and Coran’s attention.

“Yearly group?” Allura began to ask, but Lance was already running towards the door.

“Either way, we’ve got to see that ship! Hunk come on!”

“Oh, this is quickly becoming the worst night of my life.” And with that, the two boys disappeared back into the building.

“Wait for us, Paladins!” Allura and Coran yelled as they ran after the boys.

Little did Allura know, two of the last three instruments began to glow and pulsate in her bag as they ran down the stairs to where the ship crashed landed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you know what the 'reaping' is from then you and I can be very good friends.
> 
> I think I've read that series about four times and watched the movies at least a hundred. 
> 
> I'm a bit of a bookworm.


	5. Escape from the Galaxy Garrison!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!
> 
> Boy am I late on this one, but I wanted it to be perfect for you guys! I wanted to upload this last week, but life is a total and utter bitch sometimes. I spent a lot of time re-watching this episode, but I also wanted to throw my own spin on it. There were some lines I wanted to keep because I love that line about Keith's hair. One of my favorite Lance lines!
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Voltron: Legendary Defenders or Dreamworks

As the group arrived at the crash site, they could see the vast amount of Garrison personnel crowded around the small space craft. It made it almost impossible to get anywhere close to it.

“Aw man, we’re never going to be able to get to that ship!” Lance said as he strained his eyes to see the full site. Even with the extra lights the Garrison set up, it was still hard to see the ship, though this could also have to do with the fact that they were hiding far away from the site.

“Good,” Hunk said, worry and fear evident in his voice. “I guess there’s nothing to do but head back to the barracks, right?” He made to head back to the barracks until Lance grabbed him by the back of his vest.

“Oh no! You’re not chickening out on me this time!” Lance said as struggled to keep Hunk from running. “I want to see what’s in that ship!”

When they had arrived, they could make out the outline of a stretcher carrying what looked to be a body. Whether it was human, Galra or some other form of being was still unknown, which only peaked Lance’s curiosity that much more.

Allura could barely manage a straight face as she watched the two paladins. While she had hope that with a little time and a lot of training, they could become great warriors, but looking at them now… She wasn’t too impressed.

“Paladins, please!” She yelled causing Hunk and Lance to topple over each other. They turned towards the princess, who face looked beyond annoyed as she looked at them. She breathed in a quick moment before composing herself. “I understand your curiosity and I might have a way to help you see and hear a little better.” They stared at her as she walked to the edge of the cliff they were sat on.

Allura closed her eyes and not a second later, a blue light outlined her body. Taken aback, Lance and Hunk only gasped in awe at what they were seeing and feeling. The pure, raw amount of magic energy was all around them and it sort of tickled.

“You two,” Coran said as he pushed the boys forward, both stumbling from the forceful shove. “Take hold of Allura’s shoulders. She’s using her magic to magnify her sight and hearing so that you can see into that building they’ve set up.”

“But, how does holding onto her shoulders help us- “Hunk asked before,

“Just concentrate your energy with hers!” Coran said, exasperation prevalent on his face. His orange mustache even looked like it was twisting in on itself as his face turned red.

Not wanting to fight on the situation, Hunk placed his left hand on Allura’s right shoulder while Lance placed his right hand on her left. Both closed their eyes and began to align their core magic energy with Allura’s, not really knowing what the outcome would be. What met them was an out of body experience.

One moment they were standing on a rocky cliff, the next, they were in the round, semi padded room of the mobile health lab. Their bodies were outlined in the same blue shimmer as Allura and, obviously, could not be seen by those moving around the small enclosure.

“WHOA!” Lance said as he looked around. “This is amazing! How come they don’t teach magic like this at the Garrison?”

“They do, you just don’t pay attention.” Hunk said.

They could see the hazmat suited doctors, Commander Iverson and various pieces of machinery around a long table where a man was being held down. Lance looked past Iverson, who was standing beside the table, and he could feel his eyes widen.

“That’s Shiro!” Lance said, excitement evident in his voice. “This guy is a legend! The best pilot to ever come out of the Garrison, well besides me. This guy is my hero!” While Lance fangirled, Hunk had come up beside him to get a better look as well. He too was surprised to see that it was Shiro strapped to the table, considering what had happened a year ago.

“Guess he isn’t lost or dead in space after all.” Hunk said as he looked around. “Shouldn’t there be more people, though? Wasn’t he on a diplomatic space mission of some sort?” Lance shrugged his shoulders because even he didn’t know the right answer.

“To be honest, no one knows.”

“Shiro,” Iverson said as he stared down at the man on the table. “Do you know how long you’ve been gone for?”

The man, now identified as Shiro, only stared back at Iverson as he tried to wrap his head around what was going on around him. From what Lance could see, Shiro’s face looked distraught and full of anxiety. He kept looking around at everyone in the room and struggled against the bonds holding him down.

“I don’t know.” Shiro said, an exasperated breath leaving his throat. “Months? Years? I don’t know!”

“How did you get ahold of a Galra ship, then?” Iverson continued to push the poor man with questions and Lance had never felt the need to punch someone more than this moment. Couldn’t he see how panicked Shiro was?

“I don’t know!” Shiro yelled. “Look, we don’t have time to sit around and talk! The Galra are constructing a weapon with OUR people’s magic and energy! So many have already lost lives in the process!” That caused Lance and Hunk to jump back in surprise.

Was this the reason the Galra kept taking their classmates? Were they really being worked to the bone to build some sort of weapon for the Galra? It made sense, but why would they be using children still studying and honing their skills, and not adults who know how to control their powers? That was the one part that didn’t make any sense.

One of the doctors reached down to place a hand on Shiro’s right… arm? From what they could see, what should be pale flesh was replaced by metal lined with black metal. His whole arm was replaced with what could only be a Galra prosthetic.

“Hey!” Shiro said as he felt the doctor lift his arm up, his eyes wide with panic. “What are you doing?!”

“Calm down, Shiro.” Iverson said as he caught sight of the prosthetic. “We just need to run some tests to make sure you’re alright.” The doctor on the side of Iverson then approached, a full syringe in his hand.

“No-no-no-no – don’t put me under! You have to listen - “However, just as Shiro was cut off, so were Hunk and Lance.

Before they knew it, they were back on top of the cliff, slouching to their knees along with Allura, who was breathing very hard. Coran ran up to the three of them, mostly to check and make sure Allura was okay after using her magic for so long.

“Well,” He asked. “Who and what did you see? Was it a Galra?” After coming out of whatever trace they had been in, the two boys had to collect themselves to process what they had just saw.

“Shiro,” Lance said as he stood back up. “That’s who was in that ship.”

“Shiro?” Allura asked. “That man that was strapped to the table?” While Allura had acted as a gate way, it didn’t mean that she couldn’t see what had happened. She had seen everything the boys had, she just couldn’t hear anything that was being said. One of the side effects of the spell.

“Yeah, he was trying to tell them something and they wouldn’t even listen! The guy’s a legend at the Garrison and they just knocked him out!” Lance could feel his face going red as he spoke, the anger over the whole event settling into his very being.

How could they ignore a top pilot, especially when he was evidently trying to warn them about something like a possible Galra weapon and the deaths of many people?! If anything, all they seemed to care about was that cybernetic arm.

“What was he trying to tell him?” Coran asked as he helped Allura to her feet.

“Something about the Galra using the people we send to build a special weapon. He said that they’re being worked to death and that several are dead.” Hunk said as he felt his stomach drop to his feet. If the idea of an all powerful magical weapon in the hands of the evilest race in all of space didn’t scare Hunk, then he didn’t know what would.

At the mention of not only a weapon, but also how the weapon was made caused Coran and Allura’s faces to drop. Had then been too late in trying to gather the paladins?

No, they couldn’t give up now, not when they had successfully found two out of five paladins.

“Quiznak!” Coran yelled. “It’s worse than we could ever think.”

Allura looked to the small lab where this Shiro was being held. If he had flown a Galra ship, then he must have been on one of their transport or fighter ships. He must have known something else besides whatever weapon they were building.

She could only think of one thing they could do.

“We have to get him out of there.” At that, all three men turned their heads to the princess. Each had a look of ‘Are you serious?’ on their faces.

“Uh, I hate to be the voice of reason, like always,” Hunk said as he wrung his hands together, a habit he picked up when he was younger. “But why do we want to do that? Weren’t we using magic cause we couldn’t get past the guards?”

“That was before we had the proper motivation!” Lance said as stared down at the lab. “We just need to find a way past those guards.”

“We could use a disguise.” Coran said, his eyes glittering with a mischievous happiness. “I found some of those strange white cloaks over there. We put them on and we can walk right in.” Finally, he could put those disguise kits to appropriate use!

“Nope, that wouldn’t work.” Hunk said as Coran’s face fell. “They hade ID machines on the consoles to get in. They’d pick up our faces and notice that we don’t match any professor or commander in the Garrison.” And that ended that plan.

“We could knock out the guards and take their faces?” Allura said. Lance and Hunk exchanged a look of equal disgust and horror at what she had said. Were all Alteans a little crazy or was it just these two?

“That sounds a little too extreme.” Lance said as he backed away from the princess. His attraction to her just lessened a little after that.

Hunk stood little ways to the side as he watched everyone try and come with a way to get past the guards and get Shiro out of there. Frankly, all Hunk wanted to do was go back to his dorm room and pretend none of this was happening. This was all just a little too much for him and his stomach, the very thought of going against their commanding officers just to rescue some guy was making him feel ill. He just wanted to all to end!

“Or Lance and I dress up as cooks, head back to the dorms, sneak into the kitchens and a grab a little snack before bed!” Hunk said as he took in a deep breath to catch himself. Everyone stared at him after he had lashed out. Lance, however, was not stunned by what his friend had said.

“I told you we are not chickening out!” Lance yelled, his face growing red as he stared at Hunk with what he could only describe as ‘Angry Eyes’. Lance took a breath in to calm himself before speaking again. “We just need a distraction.”

As they say, ask and ye shall receive.

Soon after, a loud BOOM could be heard little ways from the encampment. After the explosion went off, dozens of personnel ran off in that direction, abandoning their posts in the process. Lance, Hunk, Allura and Coran looked in the direction of the explosion as guards began to disappear.

“Is that the Galra?” Hunk asked as he sunk a little behind the rocks. He didn’t want to think about would happen when the Galra arrived on Earth to collect Shiro. “Are they here to take more of us?”

“No,” Allura said as her well trained eyes watched the encampment. “It was the distraction we needed. Though, I don’t think it was by chance.” This caught Lance’s attention as he was thinking the same thing. There was no way that was a random act of kindness. Someone detonated that explosive as their own distraction, but who?

“What do you mean?” He asked, though Allura was too focused to answer.

Just as he pondered that notion, the sound of a hoverbike could be heard in the distance. Allura turned her head back to the encampment where she saw a rather large hoverbike being parked by the domed entrance of the lab. She could make out the definitive shape of a young man, but she couldn’t make out his face. It was covered by a dark colored mask, though only the bottom half of his face was covered. He must have been the one to set up that explosive to go off.

“There’s a young man in a red jacket entering the lab – “Before Allura could finish her sentence, Lance stopped her.

“Is his hair kind of dark and is ridiculously long for any sensible man to wear?” She gave a Lance a quizzable look before answering.

“Yes, why?” With that out of the way, Lance knew exactly who Allura was talking about. Only one person wore his hair in the most ridiculous way possible while still managing to look cool. Not that Lance would ever say that out loud, of course.

“No way!” Lance yelled as he got up, almost knocking Allura over. “Oh, he is not going to beat us in there!” He began making his way down the ridge, stumbling a couple of times. “That guy is always trying to one-up me!”

“Who is it?” Coran asked as he got up to chase after Lance, Hunk and Allura following him.

“Keith!” Lance yelled back as they got to the bottom of the ridge. Coran stopped to help Allura as Hunk continued after Lance. Hunk knew who Lance was talking about, but that guy had been kicked out of the Garrison almost a year ago. Why would he want to come back after so long?

“Are you sure?” Hunk asked as they neared the opened entrance of the lab.

“Oh, I’d recognize that mullet anywhere!” Lance then proceeded inside the lab, while Hunk stayed outside to watch for if any of the guards came back before Lance came back out. He could only hope that Lance and Keith got out with Shiro in time before ALL of them were kicked out of the Garrison.

Allura and Coran eventually met back up with Hunk, both out of breath and covered in dirt from shuffling through the side of the ridge.

“Who is Keith?” Allura asked as she knelt by Hunk.

“What’s a mullet?” Coran asked as he did the same.

Hunk gave a disgruntled sigh as he continued his lookout.

Lance ran through the long tube-like hallway as he came to the actual entrance to the lab. Arriving at the double doors, they opened to reveal Keith lifting Shiro up onto his shoulder, or at least trying to do so.

Oh, Lance was not going to let mullet boy take all the credit for this!

“Nope!” Lance said, making his presence known. “No, you don’t, I’m saving Shiro, not you!” Keith looked at the strange young man as he watched him lift the unconscious Shiro onto his own shoulders.

Looking at him, Keith vaguely remembers his face, though he can’t place the exact memory of where and when.

“Who are you?” Keith asked. The other boy gave a scoff as if saying, ‘You should know who I ‘am!’

“The names Lance, we were in the same classes together!” Though, that was only half true. While they were both pilots and mages, Keith had been a fighter pilot and a fire mage, which meant they had very little classes together.

“Really?” He said. “Were you an engineer? An alchemist?” Seriously, why was this guy saying they had classes together when he could barely remember his time at the Garrison?

“No, I’m a pilot and a mage!” Lance said as they began moving closer to the door. “We were like rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck.” That’s when it hit him. Keith did remember this guy, though not exactly as he was explaining.

“Oh wait, I remember you. You’re a cargo pilot and the water mage who froze his entire class in the pool during gym.” Keith remembered when he heard that rumor and could only think about what inexperienced idiot would go swimming with a cold. Especially, when said idiot could freeze the large pool with one sneeze.

Lance’s face began to turn red at the mention of that incident. How was he supposed to know that he could freeze the pool with his classmates in it?

“That was one time!” He said as they made their way down the hallway. “And for your information, I’m a fighter class now, thanks to you washing out.” That ended with Lance’s face developing a smug grin at his former cadet. Keith’s face ended in a scowl at the mention of his dismissal from the Garrison.

“Well, congratulations.” He said snidely. “Now, be useful and help me get Shiro to my bike.” Lance gave a ‘humph’ before readjusting Shiro on his shoulders and, begrudgingly, helping Keith to get him out.

They made it outside to see Hunk flying into a panic, while Coran and Allura had made themselves comfortable on Keith’s bike. Keith stared wide eyed at the amount of people that had suddenly decided to tag along, two of which didn’t even look like they were from this planet.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He snapped at them. “I’m not a taxi service!”

“Quite right you are, my boy.” Coran said. “However, we are dire need of a way out as we are about to come under fire.” The sound of the Garrison’s rovers could be heard, a sign that they were done investigating the explosion Keith had set up.

“Oh man, they’re coming back, and they do not look happy.” Hunk said as he crawled onto the back fin of Keith’s bike. Keith gave a sigh as he watched his bike dip backwards once Hunk was seated on it. That would make getting away harder to do, if the bike could get up.

“Good, little payback for how they treated Shiro.” Keith said as he hauled Shiro up onto the bike. “You hold Shiro.” He hauled Shiro up towards Allura, who caught his unconscious body in her arms. He was very heavy due to his muscular build, but nothing Allura couldn’t handle.

“Why am I holding him?” She asked.

“To even everything out.” Keith replied as he and Lance both got on the bike. Lance had managed to settle himself on the inside of the wing engines, hoping and praying he didn’t get thrown off in the process of wherever they were going.

“Now,” Keith said as he began revving the engine up. “Hold on!” And just as the Garrison vehicles appeared over the horizon, the hoverbike took off.

The bike twisted and turned with every opening they could manage, trying to dodge the oncoming Garrison vehicles. There were a few times where they had almost managed to catch them, but each had been thwarted by Keith’s strategic maneuvering. Though, that couldn’t last forever as the bike seemed to be slowing down.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Lance yelled as he held on for dear life. Being on the wing of the bike made it more than likely he would fall off should they run into any walls or bumpy ground.

“We could toss out some non-essential weight.” Keith said as he moved around again.

“Oh right!” Lance said, not getting the hint. His eyes squinted when he finally caught onto to what Keith was implying. “Okay, so that was an insult. I get it.” It was when two vehicles were right on them that Lance got an idea. Something that might help them get more space between them and the Garrison.

“I got an idea.” He said as he held onto the body of the bike, his arm stretched out towards the ground beneath them. “Hunk lean left!”

Doing as his friend asked, Lance was able to get better aim at the oncoming vehicles. Concentrating his aim on the tires, Lance pulled all of his magic energy into his palm, a blue light developing, and fired when looked to be an icicle at them.

“Lance!” Hunk yelled as he saw the icicle shoot past him and hit the rover. “You just hit Mr. Harris with an icicle!” It horrified Hunk that Lance attacked his teacher. If that wasn’t grounds for expulsion, Hunk didn’t want else could be.

“Yeah,” Lance said, the amusement evident in his voice. “It also stopped Professor Montgomery! Oh no, wait he’s fine.” The disappointment in Lance’s voice scared Hunk just a little bit.

“Great job.” Keith said as he revved up the bike again. “Now, big man, lean right!” Hunk did as asked again as they came around a tight corner, two remaining rovers tight on their tail. Hunk continued to think about what would happen if they did get caught with each twist and turn they took. It scared him to think of how much trouble they would be in once Iverson got his hands on them.

However, it was what was up ahead that scared him more.

“Uh guys,” Hunk said, his normally tan face suddenly becoming a pale white. “I don’t mean to ruin your fun, but is that a cliff up ahead?” And just like that, every face, except for Shiro’s and Keith’s, turned a pale, pale white.

The cliff was very deep and once false move meant all their bodies would be twisted and broken at the bottom. There was no way that Keith wanted to go off that thing, right? He knew it could be dangerous for this bike to nose dive off it, right? He valued their lives over an easy escape route, right?

Wrong.

“OH, NO, NO, NO!!!” Everyone screamed as they neared the edge of the cliff and then, the bike went clear over it.

“Yup.” Keith said as the bike nosed dived over the edge and all they could see was the hard ground below.

Coran and Hunk held onto to each as Allura did the same with Shiro’s unconscious body, their eyes closed and knuckles turning white from their grips. Lance had found his eyes unable to close as he continued to scream, a quite girlish scream if you asked Keith. Keith, however, remained unfazed by the approaching ground.

Pulling hard on the controls of the bike, he began to angle the bike to align with the incoming ground. The bike managed to keep itself from crashing into the ground and keeping everyone intact. They opened their eyes, relief evident on their faces as they saw that they were still in one piece. Lance let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he looked at their deranged pilot.

“Were you trying to kill us?!” Lance said as the bike revved up and took off again.

“Shut up and trust me!” Keith said, the wind picking up as his mullet flowed with it.

“Where are we going?” Allura asked having to yell over the sound of the engine. Keith looked back at her, though she had a suspicion it was really to check on Shiro.

“To a place the Garrison wouldn’t think to look. We’ll be able to talk there.” He said as he returned to face forward. Allura, while not entirely comforted with such a subtle statement, felt like she could trust this young man. As if he didn’t mean them any harm…

It was then that she felt the vibration coming from her satchel. Moving her hand from it spot on Shiro’s chest, she opened the flap of the bag to see the red and black stones give off a slight flash. The black gave off a strong signal the closer the bag was to Shiro and there was only one other near her that could be causing the red to act the same.

Allura had to contain her excitement at having found two more Paladins, but there was something nagging at her. Why hadn’t the green stone reacted yet? They had been all over the Garrison and then some, but the green one had given off so much as a buzz. It had remained eerily quiet their entire journey to and on Earth. While Allura was afraid to fully admit it, there was a part of her that realized what it meant to not find the last paladin.

‘My search isn’t over yet.’ She thought to herself as she saw the sun beginning to rise over the horizon. ‘Where in the galaxy could you be?’

This place that Keith was talking about was a small shack in the middle of the desert. From the outside it looked a little run down, but to Keith, it was home. It was the only place he could call home after the Garrison kicked him out.

Setting the bike down and turning it off, Keith, with the help of Lance again, managed to get Shiro into the house and onto the small couch.

“It shouldn’t be long before he wakes up.” Keith said as he stretched his back and shoulders. “The Garrison doesn’t exactly have very strong anesthesia.”

“So, what’s your deal, huh?” Lance said as he stared at Keith. “How did you know Shiro would be here in the first place?” In response, Keith pointed towards a set of radios stacked on top of each other.

“I’ve been able to get into other radio frequencies and have been listening to stations outside of Earth. Last night I happened to be listening to the Garrison’s frequency and could hear them talking about who was inside that ship. The rest is history.” He then reached into a small refrigerator, reaching in for a can of soda, and then moving to sit on the small table by the couch.

There was a long pause as they seemed to be waiting for the comatose Shiro to finally wake up and explain to them what happened to him. Allura, who too to sitting on the arm of the couch, kept sneaking glances at both Keith and Shiro, trying to think of a way to approach them about the instruments. Seeing as everyone was just waiting, she took it as her best chance.

“Excuse me,” She began before the man on the couch gave out a groan and began squinting his eyes awake.

Everyone seemed to crowd around Shiro as he opened his eyes, which resulted in him screaming at the many faces around him. Keith managed to calm him once Shiro realized who he was.

“Keith?” He said as he looked at the young man in front of him. “Where am I?” He looked around at the shack, having been here a couple of times before he disappeared.

“Away from the Garrison that’s for damn sure.” Keith said. “Shiro, you’ve been gone for a year and now, you suddenly turn up again in a Galra ship. What exactly happened to you?” He handed Shiro a plastic cup filled with coffee, hoping it would help to relieve him of any leftover sedative in his system.

Shiro took a big gulp of the hot beverage and collected his thoughts for a moment.

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.” He said as he placed his head in his hand, feeling a slight headache forming.

“Try us.” Keith said almost egging him on. Shiro took a moment to look around at the people around him.

Three of them he could see were human, but the other two were without a doubt aliens of some kind. While they didn’t look like they could harm him, he had seen too much to think he could trust them. Though, he had to admit the female of the pair was quite the beauty.

“What about them?” Shiro asked as he motioned to Allura and Coran with his prosthetic hand. “Are they in line with the Galra? Can we trust them to not tell anyone?”

Allura felt a sting of pain at what he had said. Did they look like they were in line with the Galra? As if they would ever think to work with such brutes!

“Ah don’t worry.” Lance said with a wave of his hand. “Coran and Allura hate the Galra as much as anyone else. You can trust them to keep quiet.” Though Lance had given reassurance, Shiro still looked a little hesitant to talk. However, after a slight pause, he finally began to talk.

“A year ago, I and a friend of mine were assigned to accompany the representative of Earth at the yearly gala held by the Galran Emperor, Lotor.”

“Oh right, that stupid party where we ‘celebrate the death and rebirth of the Galra Empire’ blah, blah, blah.” Lance said as he remembered the small parties the Garrison threw every year as well. Nothing really to celebrate except for the death of Zarkon.

“Well, that year was vastly different from the last one I attended.” Shiro said as he took another gulp of his coffee, though the once hot drink had now gone cold.

“How so?” Hunk asked, dread building in the pit of his stomach.

“That year, my companion was the genius engineer, Matt Holt.”

“Oh, I know about him.” Hunk said. “He was one of the best engineers to come out of the Garrison. He graduated with top honors and a full job in the space exploration program. What was he doing at a party?”

“If you would shut up, he could get to that!” Keith yelled, his anger getting the better of him. He took a deep breath as he allowed Shiro to continue.

“A couple of years before that, Matt’s father had been taken by the Galra. He was selected with many other scientist to head some kind of special project the emperor had put together. After they didn’t hear from them for a couple of months, despite being reassured that they could, Matt’s younger sister took things into her own hands.”

“His younger sister?” Allura asked.

“Matt’s sister, Katie, is smart well beyond her years. She can make and break code better than most hackers, she can solve math problems fit for college students, not to mention she’s the only mage in her family with a strong connection to nature itself. She puts every professor, commander and higher ups at the Garrison look like grade school students.” There was bit of pride in Shiro’s voice as he remembered the young girl in his mind’s eye.

“So, what exactly does that have to do with why you disappeared?” Keith asked impatiently.

“One day, Katie dug too deep into the Galra’s files looking for her father and they eventually caught onto her. I was just getting off work when I got a call from Matt. He was in tears, but I could make out one significant thing: ‘She hasn't come home.’” And with that, Shiro began to break down into tears.

“The Galra took her?” Coran asked as Shiro shook his head. He sniffled before collecting himself and continuing his story.

“At that moment, we weren't sure, but we eventually came that conclusion.”

“How did you find that out?” Lance asked, though he already knew the answer.

“It was hard to fathom, but the search was a mess of emotions I never thought I could feel.” Shiro said. “I still remember it like it was yesterday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOO, I finally included a little plot for Pidge!
> 
> a little warning with that, I'm gonna be a little evil towards everyone favorite green girl, BUT rest assured, she will still be the same tech obsessed girl we all know and love.
> 
> Thanks for reading and remember to leave kudos, subscribe and leave a comment down below.


	6. Shiro's Secret Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all!!!
> 
> So... I'm alive... somewhat.
> 
> So, these last couple of weeks were one of the busiest I've ever been. I had to take care of my two dogs and my sick aunt while both of my parents were away for a week. Mind you, I have a two year old husky, who weighs 90 something pounds, almost fully grown, and needs more attention then a human two year old. Luckily, he didn't destroy the house while I was taking care of my sick aunt, who had a tooth infection and needed a root canal. Combine this with going to school, grocery shopping and making dinner and you have one tired ass girl.
> 
> Being an adult is so much fun...
> 
> Anyway, I hope this chapter will make up for all that time I missed... Even though I know it won't.
> 
> Also, that trailer for season 6 has... me... SHOOOOK!!!! I was not ready for it!!!
> 
> Enjoy!!!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to 'Voltron: Legendary Defenders' or Dreamworks

“That day had started like any other.” Shiro said as he began explaining the details of that day. “I had just gotten back to my apartment after the debriefing for the upcoming conference when I got Matt’s call.”

************ ************ ************

_It was late at night, if 8 o’clock is considered late, when Shiro returned to his apartment. The debriefing had run longer than Iverson had let on. About 2 hours too long._

_“I swear,” Shiro said as he walked through the door, trying hard not to slam it in distress. “Iverson just loves to play slave driver. Not like any of us have lives to live.” He placed a tall stack of paper on his coffee table, each one outlined with new protocol, species of aliens and who was who at the political meeting. “You would think he would know I understand all of this.” Which was true, considering this would be his fourth time attending._

_He then took in a deep breath as he stretched out the muscles in his back. He had been hunched over the last 4 ½ hours reading file after file and going about his daily work routine. He wasn’t a scientist per se, but he was a well-versed pilot as well as an air and earth mage, a rarity among the magic community. He could see why Iverson kept putting him on this team, almost every year._

_After reheating some leftovers from Keith, the boy had become somewhat of a little brother to him after he entered the Garrison, he retired to watch some late night tv before turning in for the night. He knew he would have get up early in order to-_

_*RING* *RING*_

_Just as he was about to stick a fork full of noodles in his mouth, his phone began going off. He looked to his right, gave a sigh and picked up the blaring device._

_“Oh, it’s Matt.” He said as he pressed the green answer button on the screen. “Hey man, what’s-“_

_“Shiro!” Matt yelled. “I-we-looking-can’t find-gone!” Shiro raised his eyebrows as he listened to Matt spite out random words one after the other. He could hear the hasty, fearfulness in Matt’s voice as he listened to him ramble._

_“Whoa, whoa, slow down Matt. Take a deep breath and then collect your thoughts.” Matt, taking that deep breath, finally put together a comprehensive sentence._

_“Shiro, please tell me that Katie is with you.”_

_Katie? Why would she be at his apartment?_

_Katie is Matt’s younger sister and somewhat of a surrogate sister to him as well. He spent so much time with the Holts that he might as well have moved in._

_“No,” Shiro said as he set his food down. “Why?”_

_Matt let out an aggravated sigh as Shiro heard him yell to someone, ‘She’s not there!’, quickly followed by the sound of a woman crying. Shiro could only imagine that it was Mrs. Holt on the other end._

_“Matt, what’s happened? Why are you looking for Katie?”_

_“Everything was fine this morning, well sort of.” Matt said as his voice cracked, his anxiety and sadness evident. “I went to wake her up for school when I saw that she had been up late again trying to do more hacking into Galra systems and files. I got angry, yelled at her to give up looking for dad and then she started yelling at me and then we just…” He gave another sigh as he recalled the fight he had had with his sister. Shiro knew all about the Holt family and why Katie was hacking into the Galra systems._

_After Lotor had become emperor, he had suddenly began rounding up various scientists, alchemists and mages for some unknown project. One of those scientists happened to be Matt and Katie’s father, Samuel Holt._

_Everything was fine, at first. Sam was able to send messages and communicate with his family often to update them on his wellbeing. However, those messages soon dwindled, coming less frequent than usual, until they stopped all together. This had caused Katie a great amount of distress, but also a great amount of determination. Determination to find her father._

_“Come on Matt,” Shiro said. “You know how sensitive Katie is to that subject. Why would you yell at her about it?”_

_“I got angry!” Matt yelled causing Shiro to pull the phone briefly away from his ear. “I want to find dad just as much as her, but she’s taken it to the extreme! When she’s not at school, she’s holed up in her room on her laptop, trying to break into whatever the Galra might have about dad. I just didn’t want this to take over her life!” Shiro could hear Matt breaking into tears on the other end. He knew the pain the Holts were in, just like many other families who were going through the same thing._

_Shiro gave a sigh as he ran his hand over his forehead, messaging his temples to relieve the tension there._

_“So, what happened after you two yelled at each other?”_

_“Our mom put out the fire, at least for now, and we went about our daily routine.” Matt gave a sniffle as he tried to calm himself. “I drove her to school and then I went to work. I know her schedule, so I would text her on her breaks. I apologized and told her that it was just a misunderstanding, but she never texted me back. I just figured she was still angry with me, so I let it go. Then, as I was preparing to leave, I got a frantic call from my mom. Katie hadn’t come home from school and she wasn’t answering her phone.”_

_“That’s no reason to fret.” Shiro said. “She’s a teenager, she probably hung out with some friends after school and lost track of the time.” He wanted so badly to believe that that was what caused Katie to be late coming home. But, he knew better._

_“Shiro, we both know that Katie has the social skills of a wet, hairless cat that you threw out into the snow.” Matt said. “She hates almost everyone in her class and she would never go somewhere without letting me, mom or you know where she was and when she would be home. This isn’t like her.” Shiro knew that was true. Katie always let one of them know where she was and who she was with, if she ever went somewhere with anyone._

_No matter which ever way Shiro tried to shape this, there seemed to be only one outcome and it was a truly frightful one. Igniting some kind of fire in himself, Shiro got off the couch and walked back to his closet._

_“Alright, give me a few minutes and I’ll be right over. We’ll find her.”_

************ ************* *************

“And?” Lance asked, finding himself engrossed in Shiro’s story like a great movie. “What happened when you went to look for her?”

“We tried to get the police involved, but the most they could do was tell us to wait a few more hours until a full 24 had passed. Only then could they officially call Katie a missing persons."

“Well then,” Keith said irritably. “What did you do?”

“After the police were of no help, Matt and I decided to put forth our own investigation. We started going to the places she usually went after school. The bookstores, the computer cafes, anywhere a moody teenager might have gone. It was a little hard though considering how late it was.”

*************** *********** ************

_They had been looking for two hours and still no sign of Katie. Every place that she might have been was closed and everyone they had showed her picture to had said they hadn’t seen her. Giving up, Matt and Shiro had relocated themselves to a 24-hour eatery to recollect their thoughts._

_“I don’t understand.” Matt said as he pushed his soup around its bowl. “We’ve checked everywhere and still no sign of her anywhere. It’s like she disappeared off the face of the earth.” He gave a sigh as he folded his arms on the table and lowered his head onto them. Shiro felt bad about not being able to find Katie especially considering the situation she could be in. Kidnapped being the highest among them._

_Then a thought came to Shiro’s head._

_“Matt,” He said. “Are all of your phones connected in one…” Shiro couldn’t seem to find the right words as he wasn’t a techie like Matt or Katie, but even Matt could figure out what he was trying to say._

_“System?” Matt said, though he didn’t sound so sure himself. They looked at each, trying to understand what the other was trying to say until Matt finally got it._

_“That’s it!” He yelled as he pulled his phone from his back pocket. He quickly opened it, pulled up the app and waited until it started beeping. “Of course, why didn’t I think of this first?” Leaving money for the bill, Matt ran out the door of the building, Shiro following close behind him._

_“Did you get a signal?” Shiro asked as he caught up with Matt._

_“Yep.” Matt said. “And, thankfully, she isn’t far. According to this, her phone is situated in the nearby park. If we follow this, we should be able to find her.” That’s what worried Shiro._

_Matt still held out hope that Katie was still here, that she wasn’t in any danger and that he could apologize and set things right. While he hoped for it as well, Shiro knew that more than likely that wouldn’t be the case._

_“Matt, I want to find Katie as much as you do, but- “_

_“THERE IS NO BUT!!” Matt shouted as they neared the edge of the park. “I will find her, bring her home, yell at her for making me, mom and you worry and then I’ll apologize, and everything will go back to normal.” He didn’t even look back at Shiro as he held his phone to his face, following the direction of the pinging. Shiro knew there was no convincing him otherwise and simply followed him, hoping and praying for a miracle._

_As the pinging got louder, so did Matt’s running. His breath was coming out in pants, sweat was pouring down his forehead and Shiro was finding it harder to keep up with him. Feeling short of breath, Shiro had to stop to catch his breath, though Matt didn’t seem to notice and kept going. Shiro laid folded over, a stitch developing in his right side, when he heard Matt yell out,_

_“NO!!!”_

_Suddenly forgetting the pain he was in, Shiro pushed forward until he found his friend on his knees in the grass, head in his hands as his sobs got the better of him._

_Clearing his eyes of sweat, Shiro could only describe the scene before him as frightening._

****************** *********************** *********************

 

“Her backpack was shredded to pieces, her school supplies strewn about on the ground and it looked as though the ground had been torn apart.”

“How was it torn apart?” Coran asked, genuinely interested.

“Katie is a very talented earth mage, as well as the only mage in her family. She began taking private lessons, provided by the Garrison, when she was very young. She used that magic to fight off whoever was pursuing her. Tree limbs were protruding from the ground, possibly as defense mechanism, and only Katie has been able to do at, even at her age.” Shiro said, the pride at the thought of Katie fighting back evident in his voice.

“So, she didn’t go down without a fight.” Lance said. He found this Katie girl to be quite intriguing, at least from what Shiro was telling them. He could only imagine what she would be like in person.

“What else did you see?” Hunk said as he opened another can of soda.

“We looked around, seeing if maybe Katie was hiding from whoever attacked her, but the only thing we found was her phone and…” Shiro seemed to swallow a lump from his throat as he tried to speak that last line. “Her clothes.” Now that was sick.

That could only imply one thing and to think about it happening to anyone, let alone a young girl like Katie, could cause even the hardest of stomachs turn.

“Next to her clothes, we noticed a strange amount of purple fur laying about. Now, I ask you, what species is known for their purple fur?” Shiro asked and it didn’t take long for everyone to guess.

“The Galra.” Everyone said.

“Matt believed that they had found a way to track Katie through whatever hacking software she used to see their files. Using the tracker in her phone, we believe they were able to ambush her and take her away. To where though, we weren’t entirely sure of at first.”

“They probably took her a work camp or put her on some kind of project for them.” Allura said, remembering the ways that Galra normally handle their prisoners. “She is pretty smart as it’s almost impossible to see their files without their complete authority.”  
“Well, all I know was that that night broke Matt. I had to drag Matt back to my apartment, letting his mother know so she wouldn’t worry, and finally pass out from exhaustion. The next morning, I woke up to find him sitting on my couch with my conference debriefing papers in his hands.”

“That’s when he came up with his brilliant idea, right?” Keith said. He knew of Matt’s incapability to sit still especially when someone was in trouble, but he didn’t think he would wrap Shiro up in it as well.

“He told me that if he was able to get into the Galra labs, he could find out exactly where they had sent Katie. The only way to do that was to somehow get on the peace conference team.”

“Well, what did you say?” Lance asked though he already knew the answer.

“I said that I would ask Iverson, even if I had get on my knees and beg, I would get Matt on that team.”

“And, it worked?” Hunk asked.

“What do you think?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you can see, this is only the first part as this chapter was meant to be longer. However, it was TOO long and I had to cut it down at the end. 
> 
> Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please remember to leave some kudos and a comment down below.
> 
> Thanks so much and remember, only a few more days until VOLTRON SEASON 6!!!!


	7. Infiltrate the Emperor Palace!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HATE MY LIFE!!!!!
> 
> That pretty much sums up what I've been going through these past couple of weeks. Taking care of elderly people, even if it's your own grandmother, is the most tiring thing you can ever imagine. But, I do it because I do love her... when she isn't insulting me.
> 
> (WARNING: RANT)
> 
> Also, can I just say that just because you don't ship Klance like it runs your entire existence doesn't mean you aren't a true fan of Voltron. I literally had an almost screaming match with someone on Instagram over this and frankly, it was entirely too childish for me. 
> 
> Let me tell you that I'm a multi-shipper, mostly Pidge ships because she's my favorite, and I respect every and all ships. Frankly, ANY of the ships work because, at least to me, the characters are so well written. Heck, I even love the poly relationship of Kidgance and my guilty pleasure ship is Lotor/Pidge and Shidge.
> 
> (And yes, I'm not afraid to say that because I'm 22, going to be 23 in a month, and I'm not afraid of some teenagers.)
> 
> My point is that you can ship whatever you want, but don't bully those who disagree with you. We are here for the awesome story that is Voltron and we should enjoy it while it still going on.
> 
> One more thing, NOTHING HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN MADE CANON ON COUPLES!! (Well, except for Lotura, but we all know how that ended) If, and I said IF, Klance is not made canon, it is not the end of the fucking world. It might seem so at the time, but you'll move on to something else. Don't attack the writers, directors or the VA's for some stupid reason like you didn't get the couple you wanted. Let the show end with grace and dignity like it deserves and, if you must, rant about it to your friends, your social medias and maybe your therapists. God knows I do.
> 
> Thank you for listening to my little rant and please be kind to each other and don't treat each other like crap. However, the show ends as the end of the world. Kindness is better than anger.
> 
> Anyway, on with the chapter!!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to 'Voltron: Legendary Defenders' or Dreamworks

“When I woke up, Matt had the stack of papers from my debriefing in his lap.” Shiro said as he continued his story. “I knew what he was thinking and, at first, I was completely against it.”

 

***************                                     ***************                                               *****************

_“Please Shiro,” Matt began as Shiro reorganized his papers. “You have to get me on this committee!” Shiro looked at the younger boy, who had slept in one of his ratty, old shirts that went down to his knees and hung off his arms. The only thing he was wearing that was Matt’s were his glasses and a pair of boxers. It looked a little funny to see him almost swallowed by the clothes._

_“Matt, you know this mission is only for high ranking personnel that were hand picked by Iverson. Why would you even want to go?” Shiro asked as he folded his arms in front of his chest. The sleeves of his sleep shirt clung to his arms as his muscles flexed._

_“You saw it, didn’t you?” Matt said. “Next to Katie’s clothes were pieces of purple fur. Only the Galra have fur that color.”_

_“But, why on Earth would they take a teenaged girl?”_

_“Don’t you remember what I told you?” Matt said with an exasperated sigh. “Katie was hacking into private Galra files in order to find our dad.”_

_“So?” Shiro says, still completely confused by what Matt was trying to explain. “It’s not that hard to do with the right equipment.” Granted, Shiro was still half-asleep and hadn’t had his morning coffee yet, so anything Matt could say to him would more than likely go right over his head._

_“Ugh, listen to me Shiro,” Matt said. “Katie wasn’t hacking any ordinary files. She was hacking those only high-ranking officials and the emperor himself can view.” Now that woke Shiro right up._

_“What?!” He yelled. “How could she be so stupid?! Didn’t she know how dangerous that is?!” He knew that Katie could be obsessive over things, especially those concerning her father, but to try and hack something only the emperor can view? That went beyond his capability of thought._

_“Of course, she knew it was dangerous, but she didn’t care. If it meant that she could find Dad, she would gladly risk her freedom for his.” Matt gave another sigh as he rubbed the temples of his forehead, the feeling of migraine beginning to form._

_Deep inside, Matt believed all of this to be his fault. They lived in the same house and yet he couldn’t see how obsessed his sister was over their dad until it was too late. He couldn’t stop those monsters from getting their hands on her and taking her to God knows where, doing God knows what to her._

_“I just wish I had seen the signs.” He said, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes._

_Shiro could see how much this situation pained Matt and he could understand. First, his father is ripped away from him and now, his sister is gone as well. That be a lot for anyone to take in. Then Shiro’s thoughts turned to the other person in this family equation._

_“Matt, what about your mother? Don’t you think she deserves to know about this?” Matt scoffed as he leaned back into couch, his hands going to his face._

_“You don’t think I’ve thought about that?” He said. “It nearly killed her when Dad’s messages stopped coming that I can only imagine what she’ll say when she finds out her daughter has been kidnapped by those… giant cat-aliens!”_

_“But, Matt, she’s your mother. She was up half the night not only wondering where Katie is, but also how you were holding up in our search.” Shiro saw Matt’s hands leave his face, the bags developing under his reddening eyes, as he turned his head towards him. “She’s worried Matt. Not just for Katie, but for you as well.” From Matt’s somber expression, he could see the message beginning to settle in._

_“What are you trying to say?” He said._

_“If you want to be on this committee, then you need to tell your mother why you’re going.”_

_Shiro had never seen Matt’s eyes grow as big as they did. His brown eyes looking comical behind his round glasses._

_“You have got to be fucking joking.”_

_“No,” Shiro said, his voice switching to his captain’s voice. “I’m asking you to put yourself in her place. Her husband is missing, her daughter might well be in deep trouble and now, her son wants to wander into what could become a life-threatening situation with one of the deadliest races in the known galaxy. How do you think she’ll feel?” Matt’s shocked face morphed into one riddled with guilt. “If you really want the best way to help Katie, then you’ll need to leave it to the Garrison.”_

_What Shiro thought would be a comforting statement drove Matt over the edge._

_“Are you serious, Shiro?!” Matt yelled as he jumped from his seat on the couch. “Leave it the motherfucking Garrison? Where they’re practically under the thumb of the Galra Empire? You want me to leave the safety of my baby sister to those… those… jackasses?!” He had begun frantically shaking his head and wringing his hands through his hair as he continued rambling, listing every reason he had not to trust the Garrison._

_After what felt like hours, Matt finally stopped rambling to take in a few shaky breaths. Shiro, a little scared at the cadet, waited until his once red face went back to its normal pale complexion. His shaky breaths subsided and eventually evened out. He didn’t speak, only leaning down and resting his head in his hands. It was awhile before Matt lifted his face from his hands and rested them on his knees._

_“I have to.” Was all he said as Shiro watched his face morph again into one of determination. “The Garrison did nothing to try and locate my father, so why should I hope for them to find my sister? If I don’t do it, no one will.”_

_“And your mother?” Shiro asked, although he knew Matt’s answer._

_“I’ll tell her, but this time, I plan to return with Katie in tow.”_

_“And if ‘Plan A’ doesn’t work?”_

_“It has to work because there is no ‘Plan B.’”_

 

****************************      **************************        ********************

 

You could hear a pin drop as Shiro stopped his story. He looked around at the entirely enraptured group around him, not really believing how interested they were in it.

 

“After I sent Matt home to talk with his mother, I went into work determined to convince Iverson to let Matt join the group. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I knew Matt needed this opportunity.”

 

“Well, if our current situation says anything, I’m guessing it worked?” Lance said.

 

Shiro’s story sounded like something out of a good spy novel, one filled with espionage, damsels in distress and the big, muscular James Bond character trying to crack down on the evil corporation. Not that he ever really finished a book like that.

 

“It took a few pleas and promises of working overtime, but Iverson eventually agreed to let Matt come along. I honestly believed that he hoped Matt would one day take over for me once I finally said enough.” That broke any remaining silence with a laugh from most of the group minus Keith. “I was left with the remaining months to brief Matt on all protocol we were to follow, while also putting together a plan to retrieve Katie from wherever they were hiding her.”

 

“Did you?” Allura asked. “If so, how were you able to locate her? The Galra have so many various locations that the possibilities would be endless.”

 

“That took a while, but we were able to narrow it down. Katie is very small and has very little muscle to her, so it was less likely they would send her to do any physical labor. It was more than likely they would send her to the Galra home planet, where most of the scientists were sent.” Shiro explained.

 

The looks on everyone’s faces said everything. No one knew the information that Shiro had just said and now they were worried.

 

“Physical labor?” Hunk said. “Taken to the Galra home planet? Why would people be taken there?” His fear became evident as his voice began to shake with each word he said.

 

“None of you knew?” Shiro asked.

 

“Knew what?” Keith asked, though he was more confused then worried. He had left the Garrison before the Galra had started taking students, so he wasn’t up to date on that knowledge like Hunk and Lance were. Coran and Allura were worried of what would happen once the Paladins knew of what the Galra were really doing.

 

“Emperor Lotor is building is a ‘weapon’ of some sort and he’s building it using both alchemy and magic from multiple races, including humans.” Now it made sense.

 

Most of the students that were taken were either mages or alchemists and now, after hearing Shiro tell them about this ‘weapon’, it made sense. Lotor needed capable hands and copious amounts of energy to forge it and then put it to use. That use, however wasn’t anything they wanted to find out anytime soon.

 

“Were you able to find her?” Keith asked, interrupting the strange air surrounding Shiro’s admission. “That Katie girl.”

 

Suddenly, Shiro’s dropped even farther then when he was he explaining about Katie disappearing.

 

“Oh yeah, we did find her.”

 

“Where? On the Galra home planet? Where is that anyway?” Lance asked, having slept through many classes dealing with Galra history.

 

“The original Galra home planet, known as Daibazzal, was actually destroyed several deca-phoebs ago. The one that they reside on now is called New Daibazzal and is located several worm holes away from Earth.” Coran explained, having been the only one to have been to the planet itself.

 

“What are ‘deca-phoebs’?” Lance asked as he looked a Hunk, who merely shrugged his shoulders.

 

“It was merely a hunch,” Shiro began again. “But, we figured that it was likely she was sent to New Daibazzal to work on Lotor’s weapon. What we came to find out though was much, much worse.”

 

**********************              ************************            ***************************

_The transport shuttle was being botted up as Shiro and Matt made their way to the gangplank. Shiro could feel himself sweating underneath the grey uniform as he thought about what was to come in the next couple of days. The gala, itself, was only one night, but they were invited to spend a couple of days there. However, Shiro wanted to get in, find Katie and then get the hell off the planet._

_“Hey,” Matt nudged him as Iverson began debriefing the team before takeoff. “How are you feeling?”_

_What a question to ask._

_“Fine, considering we might be committing treason by the end of this diplomatic meeting.” Shiro said as quietly as he could. He was very mindful of the many ears around him._

_“Look, we’ve narrowed all the possibilities, and this is the only one Katie could be. The Galra wouldn’t waste that big brain of hers. At least, if they have any brains of their own.” Matt said, a little snicker following that last line. Shiro wanted to laugh as well, but he knew that could only lead to trouble, especially if Iverson overheard him._

_“I just hope you understand what you’re getting yourself into.” Shiro said and Matt merely answered back with a faint nod of his head. His face was buried in a diagram of what could only be Emperor Lotor’s castle and the research labs stationed within it. How Matt got his hands on those, Shiro was afraid to ask._

_Just as Iverson finished his speech and took his seat the shuttle’s engines roared to life, lifting off the ground and ascending past Earth’s atmosphere. As soon as they were in the vast expanse of space, a large blue wormhole appeared in front of the ship._

_(Honestly, wormhole travel was the only good thing that came out of knowing the Galra. They had some awesome technology.)_

_After entering the rocky atmosphere of the wormhole, the shuttle exited in front of the Galra home planet, New Daibazzal. The ‘new’ being used to put emphasis on the fact that this was a copy of the original, which was destroyed by an unknown force._

_From what Shiro could tell, it looked exactly like the original. It had the same dome shaped top with the spiked-out bottom and several layers of clouds circulated around it. In all honesty, those clouds gave it a bit of menacing appearance, along with the spiked bottom._

‘Katie is somewhere on that planet.’ _Shiro thought as he stared at the purple planet._ ‘Please, for Matt’s sake, let me find her.’

_They were greeted by Emperor Lotor and what appeared to be four female generals, none of which were full Galra, after their ship docked. He was dressed in what could only be called ‘Battle Armor’ and was very courteous to them. He welcomed all of them, showed them around his palace, he even showed them around the Galra community that was built around the palace._

_All seemed very well… until someone brought up visiting the labs. That someone just had to be Matthew Holt. Almost immediately, Lotor became very defensive and said that those buildings were off limits due to testing and dangerous substances being used. Matt wanted to press about the visit, but a sharp grab of his arm from Shiro shut him up. He soon apologized to the Emperor, who took it as merely a scientist’s curiosity and told him that there was no harm done._

_‘If only you knew the true reason.’ Shiro thought as he saw Matt begin to pout after being scolded by Iverson._

_It was then that Shiro caught something out of the corner of his eye._

_One of Lotor’s generals, the blue-skinned one who introduced herself as Axca, was pulled back by what appeared to be a scantily clad, pink skinned and hair alien woman. She whispered into Axca’s pointed ear and then motioned towards Lotor, who was having a conversation with Iverson. Axca nodded her head and the pink alien disappeared into the hallway. Axca walked back to Lotor, clearing her throat to get his attention._

_“Excuse me, Your Majesty.” She said as she stood at attention._

_Lotor turned his head back to her, giving her an annoyed look._

_“Yes Axca, what it is?”_

_She leaned forward to whisper something in the Emperor’s ear, which was just as pointed as hers, and Shiro could see his yellow eyes squint as his lips curled into a smirk. He shook his head in a ‘yes’ motion and then he waved Axca off as she stood back in line with the other three._

_“Very sorry, my friends,” Lotor says. “But, there is something that requires my immediate attention. My generals shall show you to your lodgings for the time being.” And with that, he walked down the same hallway the pink alien had walked down._

_For some reason, Shiro felt some sort of pull towards the hallway. As if there were something important down it, but he can’t figure out what exactly. Whatever it was, he needed to find out before their time is up._

_*TIME SKIP*_

_They had been there two days and Shiro and Matt still had no luck getting to the labs. They seemed to be watched always by either Iverson or one of Lotor’s generals._

_(He found the orange skinned general to the most annoying as she always seems to be eternally happy.)_

_However, with the gala being tonight, Shiro knew no one would be watching them. They just had to make sure no cameras caught them as they walked through the palace to the labs. Matt would later explain that he had surveyed the premises ahead of time and was ready to disable them at a moment notice. Wow, he really did think of things ahead of time. However, it wasn’t that easy._

_The only way to reach the labs was to go by the emperor’s harem, which coincidently is the lab that Shiro saw Lotor go down when they arrived. He looked up from Matt’s diagram to see the boy blushing at the idea of walking past a room filled with beautiful women. This lead to Shiro hitting the back of Matt’s head many times._

_There was no going back now._

_The night was filled with diplomats from each of the many conquered planets and systems in the empire. Different races, all in various shapes and colors, mingling together in the name of ‘peace’. If Shiro didn’t have a lot going on in his mind right now, he would almost find this wonderful to think about._

_He told Matt to wait for his signal, so the boy was preoccupying himself with showing various aliens in attendance his different projects and mathematical solutions. To anyone else, it would look like he was doing some networking and Shiro kind of hoped that maybe someone would take one of his inventions and want to make it._

_That dream was crushed when Shiro finally saw their opportunity._

_Iverson, as he usually does at these events, had had a little too much to drink and was beginning to ramble to the people around him in broken gibberish. With him being distracted, Shiro made an excuse of putting Iverson to bed, motioning for Matt to help, as the two helped the man back to his room. After depositing the drunk commander in his bed, Matt and Shiro put their plan in motion._

 

‘Hold on Katie, we’re coming for you.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW!!!!!
> 
> I DID IT!!!! A NEW CHAPTER!!!!
> 
> *looks at phone* And it's 3 in the morning... yay...
> 
> Aw well, I'm an insomniac, what can I say?
> 
> Also, little update that I updated some of the chapters, which is partly why this chapter is so late. So go check it out! 
> 
> Please don't hate this story simply because of my note, I just needed to get some things off my chest. Again, I take care of my mother, who is a cancer survivor, and my nana, who is slowly forgetting things, so I've got a lot of pent up emotions. This my only outlet for it, so... sorry.
> 
> Anyway, please remember to hit that kudos button, leave a comment below, subscribe to this story for updates and remember, be kind to each other. Our fandom is better than this. 
> 
> Thank you and I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> P.S. I PROMISE PIDGE WILL BE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!!
> 
> P.P.S You won't like Lotor in the next chapter, trust me *hint,hint*


	8. A Failure...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ya'll!!!
> 
> OMG I JUST SAW THE TRAILER FOR S7 AND I...AM...DEAD!!!! So many feels in one short video that it's too much to comprehend!! And yes, I heard the news about Shiro, but it YOU haven't, I won't spoil anything. Though if you haven't heard by now, you probably haven't been on social media in the last couple of hours. 
> 
> It also didn't help that I saw 'Mamma Mia 2' today and that movie made...me...CRY!! My friends will tell you I do not cry easily, especially when it comes to movies because I can usually figure out the plot beforehand and not be surprised. This movie was just so sweet and well thoughtout that the flood gate released completely. 
> 
> So because I'm filled with feels, I decided to write not just a chapter, but a sort of drabble/one-shot that I might continue if you guys like it. Will be posting that very soon!
> 
> ENJOY!!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to 'Voltron: Legendary Defenders' or Dreamworks
> 
> Warning: mentions of rape/non-con of a minor

"Man, what I wouldn't give to see Iverson drunk off his ass!" Lance said as he burst into laughter at the thought. That man was so tight lipped about the rules that even hearing that he  _could_ get drunk was hard to believe.

 

He continued to laugh until he noticed the irritated looks coming from the others in the room. After filling his lungs with air and wiping the tears from his eyes, he managed to calm himself and turn to Shiro.

 

"So, you managed to use drunk Iverson, which you should have taken a video of, as an excuse to snoop around the palace." He said.

 

"Yes, though it took some convincing to get him to sleep." Shiro said, feeling a headache coming on remembering how he and Matt had taken an hour to get Iverson to sleep and stay asleep. "With him out of the way, it was now easier to get around without arousing suspicion from the Emperor or his generals. We soon realized, though just how hard it would be to search the palace."

 

"I thought you said you had to get to the labs?" Lance asked, remembering Shiro explaining that that was the most logical place Katie would be.

 

"It's not as easy as you might think. The palace is a vast structure with many rooms, floors and labs." Allura said, putting in her own knowledge from her past visits to the planet. "You would have to spend many hours just to get through one floor."

 

"Well, it only took us a total of 30 minutes."

 

* * *

 

_After putting the drunk general to sleep, Matt pulled out his portable laptop and began shutting down any cameras and mapping out the rounds of the guards posted around. They didn't want to take any chances._

 

_"Okay," Matt said as he closed his laptop. "We'll have about two hours before their cameras come back online. That should give us enough time to get to the labs, find Katie and bring her back to our room." Shiro nodded his head before lifting one eyebrow._

 

_"Two hours?" He said, astonishment evident in his voice. "How did you manage that?" Matt turned his head towards Shiro, an unamused look developed on his otherwise determined face._

 

_"I would explain the whole process of data reconfiguration, moving around broken pieces of code and then putting them back together again," He seemed to say that all in one breath. "But, that would take up the whole two hours."_

 

_With that out of the way, the two men set out down the hall._

 

_They searched the multiple rooms that lined the hall and hadn't even come close to finding anything that remotely looked like a lab. They had seen a couple residential areas for staff, other visiting dignitaries, and such, but still no lab. They had also almost gotten busted by a surprise group of Galra grunts as they rounded a corner, but Matt had managed to reprogram one of the floating drones to lure them away. Shiro was truly amazed at how well Matt was with such foreign technology._

 

_"Well," Matt said as he looked at the floor diagram of where they were. "We've managed to search every room so far, except..." Matt voices seemed to falter as he read the last room they needed to search. "The Emperor's har-" Matt didn't finish that sentence as Shiro wacked him upside the head._

 

_"We're not going there."  Shiro said. He knew that any man was welcome to call upon one of the ladies in the emperor's harem, some even said that he only kept it around for appearances. However, he didn't want to get sidetrack from their mission just to hang out with busty alien women._

 

_Matt rubbed the back of his head as he showed Shiro the diagram on his laptop._

 

_"Well, we have to go by there anyway. It's on the way to where the other labs are located." Shiro did see that it was indeed on their way to the entrance to the large, domed shaped buildings that lined the outside of the palace. Heaving a sigh, he agreed, though not without the rules of only walking by and not looking inside._

 

_Matt reluctantly agreed._

 

_They walked along the dark purple walls, keeping close to the interior as Galra soldiers patrolled the hallways, until they were just on the outside of the entrance to the harem. Just beyond that was the double doors that lead to the research labs, where, hopefully, they would find Katie. As the Galra soldiers walked past them, they both began walking towards the door when two harem girls exited the room. One had light blue skin with two antenna like feelers coming out of her forehead, darker blue hair cut into a bob. Her lips were also a dark blue color that could only be found on a corpse. The other was the same pink skinned alien that Shiro had seen earlier, though this time both were clad in satin blue and red robes instead of something that left little to the imagination as before._

 

_Shiro and Matt tried ducking back into their corner, but they were stopped when the pink skinned girl noticed them._

 

_"You two!" She called out, her voice a little too high pitched for any normal human to withstand. "While you're allowed free roam of the castle, this area is strictly off limits. If you wish to request one of us, you'll need to-" Her rambling was cut short when she caught a glance of Matt. She walked up to him and began staring directly at his face, as if she were memorizing his features._

 

_After a few minutes, she went back to her companion and began to whisper in her rather fin like ears. The two men couldn't really make out what the two were saying, though occasionally they would point at Matt, until finally Shiro cleared his throat._

 

_"Excuse me, but what exactly do you want? We are in quite a hurry." And he wasn't lying. 30 minutes had already gone by and they needed to search the lab and get back to their rooms before any of the cameras came back on. The two brightly colored girls turned back to them, their faces were scrunched together as if they had just smelled something awful. The pink girl tossed her long hair over shoulder before answering in her high pitched voice._

 

_"We just thought it was funny how much you look like her."_

 

_And it was as if a lightbulb had just been switched on and then exploded in their face. Her? Did that girl just say_ her _? Quicker than Shiro could think, Matt had grabbed the girl by the shoulders and began shouting,_

 

_"Are you saying you saw someone, a girl, that looks just like me?!"_

 

_"Yes." The girl said, her voice barely going over a meek squeak._

 

_"Where?!" Matt began demanding. "Where was she taken?! Tell me!!!" Before his voice could verge on completely psychotic, Shiro pried the boy off and addressed the slightly scared girl. She collapsed to the floor, her friend joining her and trying to comfort her._

 

_"Please," He began in a gentle voice. "That girl is his sister and a dear friend of mine. She was kidnapped by the Galra and we're merely trying to find her and bring her home. If you could just tell her where she is, we'll leave you both be. That's all we want." The girls looked to each other as they contemplated telling these men what they wanted. Shiro knew that if they told him where Katie was, they would get in just as much trouble if they by chance were discovered. However, his fears were alleviated as he saw the blue skin girl, who stared at him with black, pupil less eyes, look up at him._

 

_"You'll find her down that corridor." She said pointing to the left where they had seen two Galra soldiers go down on their rounds. "She'll be in the room at the end of it. It's not hard to miss, though I wouldn't-" She didn't get to finish as Matt took off almost immediately down the hall. Shiro thanked the two girls before taking off after Matt._

 

_For having such scrawny legs, Matt moved at almost lightening speed. Shiro was finding it hard to keep up with him until he almost ran smack into him. The two were now standing in front of two large, ornate double doors._

 

_"Whoa." Shiro said as he stared at them. "Whoever lives in this room must be-" Shiro couldn't finish his sentence as Matt grabbed hold of the round jewel-like handles and went inside. What met them was medium size room with a large bed with red drapes hanging over it like a canopy with the sides pulled back to the wall. A large window, going all the way from the floor to the ceiling, with the light of the moon streaming through it._

 

_It_ s _eemed just like any other room until Matt noticed the body in the bed. His eyes widened as he saw that familiar head of long, honey brown hair._

 

_He walked, no, ran over to where his sister sleeping, kneeling down to press his hand on her shoulder._

 

_"Katie." He whispered as he began trying to shake her awake. She gave a groan as she shook off his hand and buried her face into the red pillow. "Katie!" Matt said again, this time a little louder and shaking her a little higher. She gave another groan before answering,_

 

_"What do you want now?" She said as she rubber her hands over her face. "Haven't you done enough already? I still can't feel anything below my-" Before she could finish, just as her brother had done only moments ago, her eyes going wide as she caught site of her brother._

 

_"Matt?" She said as rose up,_ _holding the red sheet close to her body._ _"Is it really you, Matt?"_

 

_"Yeah, I'm right here Katie." He said as he took his sister into his arms. He could feel her tears falling onto the orange part of his uniform as she buried her face into his shoulder._

 

_Shiro, who had been looking from afar, was happy that Matt was able to find Katie. The only problem now was getting her back to their room before the cameras came back on or the guards coming back around._

 

_Walking into the room, he taped Matt on the shoulder. He turned around to look back at Shiro, Katie doing the same._

 

_"Shiro?" She said, recognizing the young man from his many visits to her family home._

 

_"Yeah, it's because of me that this genius is here right now." He said as he nudged Matt. "_ _Look, I'm glad we were able to find you, but we really need to get going."_

 

_"Right." Matt said, remembering the time limit they were on. He moved back to his feet, hoping Katie would follow, but she merely stayed put on the bed._

 

_"I'm sorry," She said. "But, I don't think I can move." She then gave a wince, as if she were in pain, before shifting to try and lift her legs._

 

_"Don't worry." Matt said as began to remove the red blanket and sheet. "I'll just carry you. It'll actually make things easier if I do."_

 

_"No Matt, wait-" When Matt removed the sheet, he felt his stomach drop to the soles of his boots._

 

_Matt didn't expect his sister to be sitting in a bed, completely naked, much less in the state her body was in._ _The moonlight illuminated all the scars, scratches and bruises that marred Katie's otherwise pale skin. He could see the dried bits of blood that seemed to stain the inner parts of her thighs. He didn't dare try and think about where it had come from. It only got worse as he looked down towards the end of the bed. On Katie's ankles were a pair of solid gold manacles attached to the bed post by equally solid gold chains. They rattled as Katie tried to hide herself from her brother's distraught graze._

 

_"Katie," Matt stammered as he turned his gaze back to her. "What the hell did they do to you?" Katie turned her head away from him. Shiro could see her whole body begin to shake as Matt continued to press her about who or what had done this to her. Though it was obvious to Shiro what had happened, he could see that Katie didn't want to talk about it._

 

_Shiro stepped forward and pulled Matt off of Katie._

 

_"Look I know this is hard for the both of you, but we don't have the time to for any questioning. Right now we have to get these things off." He began looking at the manacles on her ankles, careful of where his eyes went, and found that they were locked and could only be opened by a key in each._

 

_"So we just need to find where they could be." Matt said._

 

_"Then it's impossible." Katie said, her voice giving off an air of defeat. "Because the only one who has the key is-"_

 

_"Me." A new voice caused Matt and Shiro to turn around while Katie moved the blanket to try and cover herself again._

 

_There standing at the door was Emperor Lotor and two of his four generals, Axca and the orange skinned one._

 

_"Arrest them." Lotor said, motioning his generals forward. The two began moving towards Shiro and Matt, both of whom had tried to fight them off. However, they were easily wrestled to their knees, their arms twisted behind their backs. "I didn't think that I would find the top commander at the Garrison and his young scientist apprentice sneaking into my private quarters, much less trying to take one of my girls from me." Lotor moved forward, passing Shiro and Matt, as came to stand in front of Katie. She had tried scooting herself to the far corner of the bed as he grabbed her under her chin, his grip sure to leave another bruise._

 

_"Get your sick hands off my sister!" Matt shouted as the orange skinned general twisted his arm harder._

 

_"Oh, my boy," He said as he pushed Katie back onto the bed. "I've done much more than just touch her. Take them away."_

 

* * *

 

"After that, Matt and I were put on trial."

 

"Trial for what?" Keith asked. "You didn't do anything wrong."

 

"And that's where you're wrong my boy." Coran said. "The two not only trespassed, but they trespassed on the royal quarters of the emperor. On our planet, that's at least a mandatory 40 deca-phoeb prison sentence. I can't even imagine what the Galra would do."

 

"A prison sentence is putting it lightly. We were charged with not only trespassing, but trying to kidnap a 'consort' of the emperor. We were lucky to escape with our lives."

 

"So, what did they do?" Hunk asked. "Community service? Indentured servitude?"

 

"We were to be used as entertainment in the fighting pits. After that- AHHHHH!" Shiro interrupted himself as he yelled from the feeling of an oncoming headache again, only much more strong and blinding. Keith raced to Shiro as he helped him sit up straight. "Sorry, I wish I could say more, but it seems as though I can't remember."

 

"It's alright," Allura said. "You've obviously been through a lot, so it might be good to get some fresh air and take a break. We'll talk more after you've taken a break."

 

"I'll go get you some clothes to change into." Keith said as he walked into the small room at the back of the shack.

 

The whole time Shiro was telling his story, Allura could feel the instruments in her satchel vibrate. She knew it meant that the two new men that had joined them we're who she was looking for, but in light of recent events, she hadn't gotten the chance to bring it up. Now, however, with Shiro's story over, it was now her opening to discuss with them about their new positions. Now, she just had to wait until they were both outside and alone to strike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, as always, please be sure to leave a kudos, a comment and subscribe to follow this story for the next update. I hope you like it and I'll see you next time.
> 
> Also, OMG, I finally put Pidge in her as more than a ghost character!
> 
> Much love and thanks!


End file.
